MHA TEAM VISITS BENGAL TO ASSESS CYCLONE DAMAGE

NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: A threemember central team headed by joint secretary of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) S K Shashi arrived in Kolkata on Sunday to assess the damage caused by Cyclone Yaas in the state, days after chief minister Mamata Banerjee abstained from a cyclone review meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“We are on a three-day visit to the state. We will visit several areas in South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore,” news agency ANI quoted a member of the team as saying.

The very severe cyclone Yaas made landfall in Odisha on May 26 and affected a large part of the state as well as West Bengal.

“The team will hold meetings with officials of disaster management and finance department in Nabanna, the West Bengal state secretariat. The team will also visit Cyclone Yaas-affected areas in South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore,” people familiar with the development said.

The West Bengal chief minister had said, as per initial assessment, the cyclone had led to damage of an estimated ₹20,000 crore to property and agriculture. She added that 18 lakh people were affected by the cyclone and around 2.21 lakh hectares of crops and 71,560 hectares of horticulture area suffered damage.

On May 28, Modi had conducted an aerial survey of the cyclone-affected areas followed by a review meeting at Kalaikunda air force station. While Banerjee and the then chief secretary, Alapan Bandyopadhyay, a senior IAS officer, did not attend it, they met Modi for a few minutes.