The state government on Tuesday decided to depute an officer of deputy magistrate rank as the nodal officer to monitor 14 extra wards of Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) under Jalpaiguri district and two panchayats near Siliguri that fall in Jalpaiguri.
The nodal officer will act as a representative of the Jalpaiguri district administration and his office would be set up in Fulbari, Siliguri, state tourism minister Gautam Deb said after the meeting in Jalpaiguri on Tuesday.
In the SMC area, of the 47 wards, 14 are in Jalpaiguri and the rest 33 in Darjeeling district. The entire area comes under the Siliguri police commissionerate.
Justifying the decision, minister Deb said it would help Siliguri residents who officially fall under Jalpaiguri district. For every official work, these residents have to visit Jalpaiguri, around 45km away, which at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic was tough, the minister said.
According to a source, Vir Vikram Rai, a deputy magistrate posted in Jalpaiguri Zilla Parishad, will be the new nodal officer. His office will be opened at “Patha Sathi,” a motel that the state has developed in Fulbari, on the southern end of Siliguri. “He will liaison with the SMC, the police, Siliguri and Jalpaiguri Development Authority, panchayats and other agencies for these 14 added wards and two panchayats,” the source said.
Siliguri MLA Asok Bhattacharya, chairperson of the board of administrators in the SMC, had raised a similar demand.
These wards and panchayats come under Dabgram-Fulbari, the Assembly constituency of minister Deb.
At the meeting it was also decided that the district administration will take up the task of running quarantine centres for migrant workers in all closed tea gardens. There are 14 such tea estates in the Dooars. An institutional quarantine centre will be opened in Fulbari, the source added.
So far, a resident from these areas who needs to be quarantined has to go to Darjeeling.
Fresh Covid cases
Seventeen new Covid-19 cases were reported in north Bengal on Tuesday and six more in neighbouring Sikkim.
Khatif Sheikh, 27, a migrant worker of Malda, died on board a special train while returning from Kerala. Sheikh, from Chandpur under Pukhuria police station of Malda, had gone to Kerala six months back. His fellow passengers claimed that though railway police were told that Sheikh was unwell, no action was taken.
His body was sent to the Malda Medical College and Hospital for post-mortem and swab samples collected for posthumous Covid-19 tests. In Malda, two new Covid-19 cases were reported on Tuesday.
In Siliguri, an intern and two nurses from the gynaecology ward of the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital and three other patients under quarantine have tested positive. Seven new patients were found in Jalpaiguri, including a Maynaguri fire station employee. The fire station has been closed and other employees sent in quarantine.
Six cases have been reported in Darjeeling district and two in Alipurduar.
In Sikkim, the detection of six new patients increased the number of cases to 10.
Canine virus
Seven street dogs in Raiganj have died of suspected viral canine distemper during past two days and another 30-odd dogs are suspected to be similarly infected, said Gautam Tantia, secretary of People For Animals in Raiganj.