Landfall in Odisha, Didi pulls up socks
The Met office on Monday said cyclone Yaas has transformed into a very severe cyclonic storm and will make a landfall near Odisha’s Balasore crossing Sagar Island in West Bengal on Wednesday afternoon.
“Due to the severe cyclone Yaas East Midnapore and parts of South 24 parganas will be mostly affected and gale wind-speed would be 155-185 kmph. After the landfall the cyclone will be directed towards Jharkhand,” IMD director (East Zone) Sanjib Bandhopadhyay said, adding Kolkata and the adjoining areas will receive heavy to very heavy rainfall with windspeed going up to 80-90 kmph and after May 27 the impact of rain will go down.
The weatherman added the Yaas impact is likely to be less powerful than last year’s super cyclone Amphan but entire Gangetic West Bengal will receive heavy to very heavy rainfall.
Meanwhile, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee held a meet with her cabinet ministers after a virtual meeting with the Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Slamming the Union Home Minister, Mamata said Shah promised Rs600 crore relief to Odisha and Andhra but only Rs400 is allotted to West Bengal.
“Despite partiality of the Centre, the West Bengal government has set up 4,000 cyclone relief centres and 51 disaster management teams to monitor and tackle the situation round the clock. We have targeted the evacuation of 10 lakh people, especially in East Midnapore, North and South 24 Parganas,” Mamata said.
The CM urged the people to shift to the school buildings or flood shelters as arranged by the state administration. She warned fishermen to stay away from sea and listen to the administration.
“Apart from Yaas we have also made a committee to implement Duare Ration (ration at doorstep) and Student credit card at the earliest in West Bengal,” the CM added.
Meanwhile, the CESC officials have put on standby 2,500 volunteers to address on-field complaints.
Talking to FPJ, Sushmita Mukherjee, All India general secretary of Human Rights Commission said the Human Rights Commission also evacuated the coastal people to concrete buildings and ensured 3 meals a day.
Notably, since Monday morning, Kolkata and adjoining Howrah, Hooghly and North 24 Parganas have been witnessing scattered rainfall and till the time of going to press, the cyclone remained 610 km away from Sagar Island.