A BJP supporter who claimed to have witnessed the attack said, “For the past few days, TMC supporters were coming here and disturbing and threatening us with firearms. Today, in the morning, they came and fired at Radharani. She received a serious head injury.”

“Three people were inside in the shanty. They were taken to nearby Sagar Dutta Medical College and Hospital. While two of them died, one is being treated,” said police.

The decision was taken on Saturday after several staff at the institute’s BC Roy Technology Hospital recently tested positive for Covid-19.

“There are no directives as of now. Only special trains are running. It has not yet been finalised when the local trains will resume services,” said Eastern Railway spokesperson Nikhil Chakraborty.

The doubling rate of infection — calculated over seven-day average growth — slowed further, rising from 32.5 days the week before to 37 days.

According to Kolkata Municipal Corporation, which started the process on Thursday, applications from traders will be scrutinised and the licences will be granted within 24 hours if their papers are in order.

“They basically gave us hints first, then we approached them. Not that we contacted them first,” said Panchayat and Rural Development Minister Subrata Mukherjee.

Launching another broadside at the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, the BJP on Friday alleged that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was “scared of holding elections” in the state as she feared electoral reversals.

"The state government has proposed developing a system to issue e-pass for entering metro stations, which was explained by the developer to the committee. They have sought certain information from Metro to facilitate the same, which will be provided by Metro Railways,” Metro Chief Public Relations Officer Indrani Banerjee said.

Earlier, after receiving a number of complaints about hospitals charging Covid-19 patients exorbitant sums of money, the WBCERC had told private medical facilities that they cannot ask patients to pay more than Rs 50,000 advance deposit.

Only those who test negative will be allowed to enter the building. The session would be held as per ICMR guidelines.

As a result of the surge in recoveries, active cases have declined for 11 straight days, and are down to 24,039. Of the 36,241 patients discharged in this period, over a third were from the capital city and the district to its north.

Both the state administration and Metro Rail officials said the modalities of implementing social-distancing norms and crowd management were discussed at the meeting. Another round of discussions will be held on Friday.

According to sources in the police, Roy fell unconscious while being questioned in the station in connection with a robbery on August 28. He was then taken to Raiganj Medical College and Hospital, but was declared dead.

The first person to donate plasma in the state was Monami Biswas. After her recovery on March 31, she returned to the United Kingdom to pursue her Masters at the University of Edinburgh. “I came forward so that others do not suffer,” she said.

Rejecting the allegation, an employee of the nursing home claimed, “The patient was on the ventilator, and we immediately informed the family about the death. Suddenly, they felt that he had died earlier and started protesting."

Meanwhile, Visva Bharati University (VBU) will hold the final semester examination this month and the principals of different departments have been told to choose the modalities for conducting the tests.

“During routine patrolling near Vidhyadhari canal, a suspicious object was spotted floating. Around 7:45 am, when the patrolling party cleared the nearby area, they found that it was a man’s body,” said a BSF officer.

The state’s recovery rate also kept moving up, rising to 81.96 per cent. It was 77.78 per cent last Sunday. At present, the state has 25,657 active cases, down from 28,069 at the end of last week.

The executive council took the decision on Friday evening based on the recommendations made by the one-man Justice (retired) Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya Committee.

In the 41st meeting of the GST Council on August 27, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the Covid-19 pandemic was an "act of God" which had hit the GST collection and ruled out paying compensation to states from its coffers.

The BJP is of the view that the state government's annual flagship event Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) — being held since 2015 — has floundered.

The test centres, meanwhile, are taking all precautions to ensure the safety and security of candidates. On Friday, the staff at DPS Ruby Park were seen sanitising benches, and disinfecting corridors and washrooms.

The last session was adjourned on March 17, as the next day the state recorded its first Covid case. According to rules, the Assembly must be convened once in every six months. So, the session will be held on September 9 to abide by the rules.