Bengal shuts schools, cuts flight services

Kolkata: The West Bengal government brought back stricter Covid curbs amid a steep rise in cases, shutting all educational institutions from Monday and restricting flights from the country's capital Delhi and financial capital Mumbai besides allowing offices to operate with a 50 per cent workforce. At a press conference on Sunday, Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi announced that only essential services will be permitted to operate between 10 pm and 5 am in the state till January 15.

"From Monday, all academic activities in schools, colleges and universities will remain closed. Only administrative activities will be permitted with 50 per cent employees at a time," he said. Decision on the school board examinations will be taken by the respective boards, he added. Flights from Mumbai and New Delhi will ply only twice a week, and no flights from the UK will be allowed for the time being, Dwivedi said. "As a part of the restrictions, flights from these two cities will operate only twice a week -- Mondays and Fridays," he said.

"We have temporarily suspended flights from the UK. For passengers coming in from non-risk countries, we have made rapid antigen tests mandatory."Continued on Page 7