The West Bengal Commission for Other Backward Classes has recommended to the state government that the Baishnab Bairagi community be given the OBC-B status, the chairperson of the commission, retired judge Ashim Banerjee, said on Thursday.
The commission held an online meeting with members of the Baishnab Bairagi community on Thursday.
The community had applied to the commission for inclusion into the other backward classes (OBC) category, said Banerjee.
“The commission unanimously decided in favour of sending a recommendation to the state government to include the Baishnab community in the OBC-B category,” he said.
He said the OBCs were classified into two categories. Those who are socially and economically better off are in the OBC-B category and the rest are in the OBC-A category.
Private hospitals free to reduce Covid beds It is the decision of private hospitals whether they want to reduce the number of Covid beds. - West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission
The chairperson of the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission has said private hospitals are free to reduce the number of Covid beds if they wished so.
Several private hospitals were mulling to reduce the number of Covid beds as number of non-Covid patients was in the rise. Some hospitals said they would seek an informal approval from the government before reducing beds.
The commission had asked all private hospitals to increase the number of Covid beds ahead of Durga Puja and Diwali, when many had apprehended a rise in the numbers of Covid patients.
The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission on Friday asked R Flemming Hospital to return Rs 3 lakh to a Covid patient and Horizon Life Line to return Rs 2 lakh to another after it found that the city hospitals had overcharged the patients.
Retired judge Ashim Banerjee, the chairperson of the commission, said they found that Horizon Life Line had charged more than the government capped rates for personal protection equipment (PPE) and doctors’ consultation fees.
Regarding the complaint against R Flemming, he said that the bill generated by the hospital was not justified given the fact that the patient had stayed most of the days in a general bed.