COVID-19: Abhijit Banerjee also expressed hope that India’s economy will return to normal within a year
Calcutta:
Nobel Prize-winning economist Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee backed the decision of the West Bengal government to support the state’s Durga puja committees with Rs 50,000 each, saying organizers needed the extra amount to adopt COVID security protocols -19.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on September 24 the granting of a grant of Rs 50,000 for each of the 36,946 Durga Puja community committees in the state in COVID-19 times.
It drew criticism from many sides and was also challenged in the High Court in Calcutta.
However, she found the support of the economist who won the Nobel Prize in 2019.
“This is not a bad decision considering the additional expenditure of the puja committees to implement security measures,” he said in answering a question in an interview with the news channel. vernacular ABP Ananda.
The state government had told the court that the grant was intended for “secular purposes”, such as purchasing Covid security equipment and liaising between police and police. However, the High Court ordered Monday that all Durga Puja pandals across the state be declared no-entry zones to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee also said he was concerned that gathering large numbers of people to visit pandals might increase COVID-19 cases in the state and urged people to be responsible for safety.
He also expressed hope that the Indian economy could return to normal to a large extent within a year, overcoming the slowdown induced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The pandemic has had a negative impact on the economy and the security against infection is also important. However, I believe that in a year we will be able to recover to a large extent by helping to improve the labor market “Mr. Banerjee said in response to a question about job losses during the crisis.
Mr Banerjee said he was not opposed to resuming local rail services because trains have a better cross-ventilation system than buses.
However, he said, there should be restrictions and people must follow safety protocols like wearing masks.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
