West Bengal, which is battling a spurt in COVID-19 cases, on Monday appointed four senior IAS officers as nodal officers for “supervising and coordinating” different activities to control the spread of the pandemic.
The nodal officers for Kolkata, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas and Howrah were changed by an order issued by Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha. State’s Home Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay has been appointed as the nodal officer for Kolkata, which has accounted for the highest number of infections and over 500 deaths. Manoj Pant, another senior IAS officer, has been assigned the responsibility of North 24 Parganas while Naveen Prakash and Rajesh Pandey have been appointed a nodal officers for South 24 Parganas and Howrah respectively.
The State recorded 1,435 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, taking the total number of cases to 31,448. The number of active infections has increased to 11,279.
24 deaths in 24 hours
Twenty-four deaths were also reported in the past 24 hours taking the number of deaths to 956. Of the new fatalities, 10 were reported from Kolkata and eight from North 24 Parganas district. Reports of the remaining deaths came in from Hooghly, Howrah, South 24 Parganas and Paschim Bardhaman district.
Bureaucrat succumbs
Meanwhile, a young bureaucrat posted in the State’s Hooghly district died of COVID-19 during the day. This was the first death in the State’s bureaucracy. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took to Twitter to express grief over the death and hailed 34-year-old Debdatta Ray for her contribution to combating the pandemic.
“Grieved to hear about the untimely passing away of Debdatta Ray, who was posted as Deputy Magistrate & Deputy Collector in Chandannagar. A young WBCS (Exe) Officer, she was at the forefront fighting the pandemic & displayed outstanding devotion in discharge of her duties (sic),” the CM said in a tweet.
She added, “I, on behalf of the Govt of West Bengal, salute her spirit & the sacrifice she's made in service of the people of #Bengal. Spoke to her husband today & extended my deepest condolences. May the departed soul rest in peace & lord give her family strength to endure this loss. (sic)”
Ms. Banerjee also sent a letter to the bereaved family.
