State to hand over details of Yaas damage to Central team today
Kolkata: The Bengal government will hand over details of the damage caused by Cyclone Yaas to the Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) on Wednesday mentioning the total loss that the state incurred due to the devastation caused by the cyclone.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee maintained that primary assessment has revealed that there was damage to the tune of over Rs 20,000 crore. The quantum of loss would go up much above Rs 21,500 crore with the final assessment being undertaken by state government officers, said sources in the state Secretariat.
Senior officers of the state Disaster Management and Finance department will be holding a meeting with the IMCT at Nabanna on Wednesday and this comes after the seven-member central team's visit to different cyclone-affected areas in East Midnapore, North and South 24-Parganas on Monday and Tuesday respectively.
According to a senior state government officer, the major loss was caused to the agriculture sector with acres after acres getting heavily inundated with saline water. The primary report had revealed that around 2.22 lakh hectares of agricultural land were affected with breaches on the embankment at 371 spots, resulting in a loss of more than Rs 2,400 crore. At the same time, the initial report received from the districts had shown that more than 20,000 houses were damaged and at least one crore people were badly impacted when the very severe cyclonic storm caused havoc after it made landfall near Bahanaga block — 50 km south of Balasore and north of Dhamra — in Odisha's Balasore district around 9 am on May 26 with a wind speed of around 130-140 kmph, gusting up to 155 kmph.
"A booklet containing detailed information on the damages caused to each sector (after final assessment) and the total loss will be handed over to the officers of the ICMT during the meeting," said a senior state government officer.
The Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) comprising Joint Secretary of Home Ministry S K Shahi, Director of Directorate of Jute Development Narender Kumar, Assistant Executive Engineer of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in Kolkata Sanjukta Kanjilal, US (MGNREGA) of Rural Development Ministry Deep Shekhar Singhal, Executive Engineer in Kolkata of Power Ministry Alikpanth De, Deputy Commissioner of Fisheries Rajiv Pratap Dubey and Consultant (FCD) of Department of Expenditure RB Kaul have reached Kolkata on June 6 and visited different areas after dividing themselves into two groups.
On Monday, one team visited areas, including Patharpratima and Gosaba after taking a chopper from Dumurjola in Howrah while the other team went to Basanti's Godkhali. Members of the IMCT visited different affected areas in East Midnapore, including Dadanpatrabar at Ramnagar. They also held a meeting with the district administration before visiting the places where they interacted with the affected people.
