3L EVACUATED IN WB AHEAD OF CYCLONE

West Bengal has evacuated around three lakh people from the coastal parts ahead of the super cyclone Amphan. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee assured Union home minister Amit Shah about her government’s preparedness to deal with any eventuality.

“Cyclone Amphan is likely to hit Sagar Island in South 24 Parganas at around 2 pm on Wednesday. We have evacuated around two lakh people and

50,000 people in South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas respectively. In East Midnapore and West Midnapore, around 40,000 and

10,000 people respectively were evacuated. Earlier during Cyclone Bulbul, 1.80 lakh people were evacuated,” she said.

“Union home minister called me regarding preparedness. I told him we are doing well,” she added.

Cyclone Amphan is expected to make a landfall on Wednesday afternoon in the Sundarbans delta of the Bay of Bengal in between Digha West Bengal and Hatiya Islands in Bangladesh in the form of a “very severe cyclonic storm.”

Banerjee, who will monitor relief operations from the state secretariat on Wednesday by spending the night there, ordered chief secretary Rajiva Sinha to inform the Railways Ministry to ensure no movement of the Shramik Special trains to the state from Wednesday till May

21. Also, the Kolkata Port Trust, which was playing a crucial role in cargo handling of essential items supplies amid lockdown, has suspended its operations as a precautionary step to avoid damages due to the cyclone.