West Bengal News Live Updates: Rs 1.5-crore forex seized at Kolkata airport

Bengal BJP leaders huddled into a meeting at a New Town hotel on Monday, aday after Arjun Singh went back to Trinamool, to assess who in the BJP Barrackpore organization structure could follow in Singh’s footsteps. The BJP finally put Suvendu Adhikari in charge of the Barrackpore district. Adhikari is likely to take charge after the organizational stock-taking and a shuffle in the Barrackpore unit, in which at least six are known Singh sympathisers.

The Enforcement Directorate has recovered Rs 1. 5 crore unaccounted for forex from a domestic traveller at Kolkata airport and booked him for violations under Foreign Exchange Management Act. The passenger had arrived from Gorakhpur. The recovery was made after a search on the basis of an information received from the Airport Intelligence Unit and the Customs at the airport on May 21. “During search, foreign currencies of $1,65,000 and 30,460 Euro were seized from him,” said an officer.

Health officials and immigration officers at Kolkata airport have been alerted to be on the lookout for passengers suffering from fever, rashes of swollen lymph nodes in the hands and face. They have been instructed to isolate and send them to the Infectious Diseases & Beliaghata General Hospital to check if the person is afflicted with monkeypox.

The city has seen a sudden spurt in the number of people with Covid-like symptoms over the last fortnight, some of whom have tested positive, but the official positivity rate has remained very low with the majority not feeling the need to get tested for mild fever and cough. Also, many with symptoms have tested positive at home using home-test kits and in almost all cases, the disease has been mild and hospitalisations negligible. Experts have quelled fears of a major spread and pointed out that Covid is now a mild disease akin to the innocuous cough and cold.

Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday floated the “idea” of making all central agencies autonomous, whereby only salaries of their staff would be paid by the government, nothing more. “I am the first person to raise it (this issue) because ultimately this needs to be done in India if we want to save it from agency rule, save democracy and save it from disaster,” she said.

Metro Railway is eyeing May 31 for commissioning of the East-West Metro’s Sealdah section. At present, Kolkata’s Line 2 runs a truncated 6. 6km service from Sector V to Phoolbagan. On Monday, officials from the Railway Board reportedly gave verbal instructions to the agencies to be prepared to start operations till Sealdah on May 31. Sources said railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw may be in the city on that day to launch the section while PM Narendra Modi may remotely flag it off from Delhi.