Chief Secy checks measures in place to combat cyclone

Kolkata: Chief Secretary H K Dwivedi directed the state Power department to take necessary measures and also ask CESC to do the needful for quick restoration of power supply, if it is affected or temporarily stopped as a precautionary measure due to the impending cyclonic conditions. He reminded the concerned officials that during severe cyclonic storm Amphan in May 2020, in some areas, it took a lot of time for restoration of the power supply, which should not happen this time.

The Fisheries Secretary was instructed to take proper measures to ensure that fishermen do not venture into the sea. The Irrigation department has been asked to keep its engineers ready so that damaged embankments can be restored at the earliest. Dwivedi further directed three coastal districts in particular — East Midnapore, South 24-Parganas and North 24-Parganas — to keep flood shelters and relief materials ready. Dwivedi chaired a high-level meeting to take stock of preparedness in connection with the weather alert with South Bengal District Magistrates joining virtually. Two NDRF teams have already been sent to each of the three coastal districts while the other South Bengal districts will have one NDRF team each. 28 SDRF teams have been deployed in the districts.

Nabanna has appointed senior bureaucrats for supervision and monitoring of relief and rescue operations from October 24 to 26. Vivek Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary of Forest and Animal Resources Development department will be in charge of South 24-Parganas; Manish Jain, Principal Secretary of Education department, will monitor North 24-Parganas; Rajesh Pandey, Principal Secretary, MSME department, will be in-charge of Howrah; Surendra Gupta , Principal Secretary, Public Health Engineering department, will take care of West Midnapore; Avanindra Singh, Secretary of Fisheries department will monitor Hooghly while Saumitra Mohan, Secretary, Tourism department will supervise East Midnapore.