Making arrangements for free COVID vaccine for everyone in Bengal: Mamata
Kolkata: The West Bengal government is making arrangements to provide free COVID vaccines to all the people of the state, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said.
In an open letter, Banerjee said the COVID warriors, including police, home guards, civil defence volunteers, correctional homes, and disaster management employees, will be administered the vaccine on a priority basis.
"I am happy to inform you that our government is making arrangements for reaching the vaccine to all people of the state free of any charge," the chief minister said in the letter addressed to the frontline workers.
Banerjee expressed her gratitude to all the COVID warriors for their selfless service to the people of West Bengal.
India is set to launch its COVID-19 vaccination drive from January 16 with priority to be given to nearly three crore healthcare and frontline workers across the country.
The chief minister's announcement of free vaccination for everyone comes months ahead of the assembly elections, which are likely to be held in April-May.
Earlier, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had made a similar announcement. The southern state will also go to polls along with Bengal.
The Bihar government has also given the cabinet nod to provide free vaccine to every citizen of the state, a promise the BJP made in its manifesto for the assembly elections held in October-November.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
