YAAS REVIEW

tional ethos and the culture of cooperative federalism”.

“When PM Narendra Modi stands strong with the citizens of West Bengal in wake of Cyclone Yaas, Mamata ji should also set aside her ego for the welfare of people. Her absence from the PM’S meeting is murder of constitutional ethos & the culture of cooperative federalism,” he tweeted.

Later, a release issued by the Prime Minister’s Office said Modi has announced a financial assistance of ₹1,000 crore for immediate relief activities. “₹500 crore would be immediately given to Odisha. Another ₹500 crore has been announced for West Bengal and Jharkhand, which will be released on the basis of the damage,” the PMO said in a statement.

“The Union government will deploy an inter-ministerial team to visit the states to assess the extent of damage, based on which further assistance will be given,” it said.

Modi has also declared an ex-gratia of ₹2 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased and ₹50,000 for those seriously injured in the cyclone, the release said.

Earlier at the meeting with the PM Modi, the Odisha government demanded long term solutions to mitigate problems of repeated cyclones and provision of disaster resilient power systems.

The state government sought no immediate funds to manage the expenditure incurred in disaster management, but stressed on long term solutions to the problem as Odisha is frequently hit by major calamities like cyclones, the state’s special relief commissioner (SRC) PK Jena told reporters after the meeting.

Immediately after the review meeting, which continued for about an hour, attended by Odisha governor Ganeshi Lal, CM Patnaik, two Union ministers -- Dharmendra Pradhan and Pratap Sarangi, the Prime Minister left for aerial survey to the worst cyclone affected areas of Balasore and Bdahrak.

Cyclone Yaas, packing winds gusting to 145 kmph whiplashed parts of India’s eastern coast on Wednesday, killing at least three people in Odisha and one in West Bengal and leaving behind a trail of damaged homes and flooded farmland, forcing more than 2.1 million people to be evacuated to safe shelters in the states of West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand.

After the havoc caused by the cyclone, heavy post-cyclone rains on Thursday has seen river water levels rising above the danger mark, placing four districts of Odisha -- Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara and Keonjhar -on high alert.