Central team reaches West Bengal

■ 7-member team to visit 2 districts devasted by Cyclone Amphan

More than two weeks after Cyclone Amphan devastated West Bengal, a sevenmember inter ministerial central team (IMCT), sent by the Narendra Modi government, reached the state on Thursday evening to assess the extent of damage. Led by Union home ministry’s joint secretary (cyber and information security) Anuj Sharma, the IMCT, divided in two teams, will visit the two worst-affected districts, South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas on June 5 and 6 respectively by travelling in cars on road, launch boats in river and choppers in air.

Patharpratima and Namkhana in South 24 Parganas and Hingalganj and Basirhat in North 24 Parganas are on their list of destinations including

Kolkata which also bore the brunt of the dangerous cyclone on May 20. On May 22, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accompanied by governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and chief minister Mamata Banerjee, visited Basirhat during his aerial survey to take stock of the devastation.

Apart from Mr Sharma, key officials of the ministry of agriculture and farmers Welfare, department of fisheries, department of expenditure, ministry of Jal Shakti, ministry of power and ministry of road transport and highways are in the team.

The state government, which was sanctioned a relief fund of `1,000 crores by the Centre after the PM’s visit, is expected to demand for more financial assistance with its report of scale of devastation to the IMCT when it would meet state chief secretary Rajiva Sinha on June 6 before returning to New Delhi.

While 98 persons lost their lives, six crores out of the state’s population of 10 crores were affected due to Cyclone Amphan though 8.13 lakh people were evacuated by the state government. Besides, around 4.5 lakhs electric poles were uprooted while 300 culverts of bridges, 10.5 lakh hectares of agricultural land, 58,000 hectares of fisheries, 4,710 kms of rural roads, 26 jetties, 160 km of dams and 1.10 lakh schools were also damaged.

◗ WHILE 98 persons lost their lives, six crores out of the state’s population of 10 crores were affected due to Cyclone Amphan though 8.13 lakh people were evacuated by the state government