Bengal COVID-19 centre supervisor commits suicide
A senior medical supervisor in Ghugudanga area of West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district committed suicide after being harassed by local people over fixing of a Covid-19 swab testing lab and quarantine centre within the area.
The supervisor, Debasish Chakrabarty consumed poison and jumped into a well in his residential premises on Tuesday night. He was taken to the Jalpaiguri sub-divisional hospital by his neighbours where he died on Wednesday night.
The supervisor was slated to retire in September this year.
In a two-page suicide note, Debasish Chakrabarty said he was being harassed and pressurised by local people that didn't want the swab test centre to return up in their area. Being an area, himself, the supervisor said he was mentally dejected over the matter.
He also mentioned within the suicide note that he didn't get any support from his co-workers. “I haven't been harassed in such a fashion throughout my professional career,” Chakrabarty wrote within the note.
Chakrabarty was responsible for restricting the spread of Covid-19 within the area and hence liable for fixing the swab testing lab and a quarantine centre.
His younger brother Ranjan Chakrabarty said, “He was struggling from local people, and will not take the strain. We are particularly sad that the unfortunate incident happened just four months before his retirement.”
Chief health officer, Jalpaiguri, Dr Ramendranath Pramanik said, “We will investigate why he committed suicide.”

Food for walking migrants at every 50km in Andhra
Andhra Pradesh government has decided to line up facilities for food, water and other basic needs for migrants at every 50km on the highways.
Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy also asked the officials to explore the likelihood of arranging vehicles to go away such workers to their hometowns or villages.
A large number of migrant workers from different states undergo Andhra Pradesh, many of them walking home on foot. During their journey, they run aground, and therefore the governments of their home states remain helpless. At some places, police and NGOs offer them food, but many of them need to defend themselves.
Moved by the plight of migrant workers walking on foot to succeed in their homes, the Andhra CM came up with the suggestion to determine food and amenities centres at every 50 km, a CMO spokesperson said.
A couple of migrant workers have died of starvation and dehydration while walking many kilometres under scorching summer heat without food and water within the neighbouring Telangana.
In the latest incident, on Tuesday, a young migrant worker, Kasa Madakami, walking from his workplace in Hyderabad to his native Odisha, died in Bhadrachalam temple town after covering 300km. Doctors concluded that he had succumbed to hunger and dehydration. Another 13-year- old girl, Jamlo Makdam, died after walking from Warangal district to her native Raipur in Chhattisgarh last month.