The West Bengal authorities are required by the Calcutta High Court to make sure that the state’s Health and Family Welfare Department’s regulations are observed when the Trinamool Congress, the state’s governing party, holds its Martyrs’ Day demonstration on Thursday.
A PIL asking the court to order the state to take appropriate action and enforce rules to conduct the program virtually or adhere to strict guidelines for holding the event was filed with the claim that 15 to 20 lakh people will attend the rally at Esplanade in Kolkata amid rising COVID-19 cases in the state.
The Health and Family Welfare Department has released instructions for staging the demonstration. For those seeking to join it, Advocate General SN Mookherjee, speaking on behalf of the state, told the division bench headed over by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava.
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Following Covid-appropriate behavior, the guideline advised that only asymptomatic and fully immunized individuals should ideally attend public gatherings.
The relevant authorities have been ordered to ensure the rules are observed while hosting the public gathering on Thursday in honor of Martyrs’ Day by the bench, including Justice R. Bharadwaj.
In deciding on the PIL, the court also instructed the state authorities to take all feasible measures to ensure that the demonstration is conducted peacefully and that it won’t propagate COVID-19 across the state.
