Strict lockdown imposed, more than 6,000 arrested

Kolkata: With stringent measures taken by the police to impose the statewide "twice-a-week" complete lockdown, as many as 6,186 people were arrested on Thursday for flouting protocol.

This is one of the highest numbers of arrests made by the West Bengal Police for flouting lockdown norms compared to all the previous seven days of the imposition of the same. The West Bengal Police arrested as many as 5,273 people till 6 pm while the figure is 913 in Kolkata till 8 pm.

Lockdown passed off peacefully across the state including Kolkata with a close vigil being maintained by the cops. In Kolkata, police did miking at different places including marketplaces on Wednesday itself to make people aware. As a result, most people did not venture out of their houses without any valid reason on Thursday. Only a handful number came out without any purpose to take joy rides on empty roads, resulting in the arrests. Kolkata Police also prosecuted 17 vehicles and booked 348 and 29 people for not using face masks and spitting in public places respectively. While in remaining parts of the state, the West Bengal Police registered 103 FIRs and seized 30 vehicles.

A pre-scheduled online entrance examination of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) was held in the office of an IT giant at Salt Lake. The examination was held in shifts and was scheduled before the lockdown was announced. The examinees faced inconvenience in reaching the exam centre as there was no transport facility available due to the lockdown.

Flight and train operations in the state remained completely shut on Thursday.

A senior officer of the state police said: "The overall situation in the state remained peaceful and no markets were open."

However, there were reports of people setting up vegetable and fish stalls at isolated places including Bankura Snanghat and Tamluk Ram Tarak Bazar, to which police took quick action.