Kolkata: With massive devastation caused by cyclone Yaas, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday rolled out "Duare Tran" (relief at doorstep) outreach programme to extend her government's support to the affected people without even a single one getting deprived of the same.
The primary estimated damage due to the cyclone is Rs 15,000 crore for which the state government has already earmarked Rs 1,000 crore for immediate relief. The total damage is considered to come out to be much higher after the field survey is conducted once the accumulated water recedes. In the "very preliminary report", saline water entered into 1.16 lakh hectare agriculture land causing damage of Rs 2,000 crore while a loss of another Rs 3,000 crore was caused with more than 3 lakh houses being affected, and East Midnapore, Howrah, North and South 24-Parganas emerging as the worst affected districts.
In connection with the total loss, Banerjee said: "It is too early to estimate the total loss and damage but the preliminary ground report suggests that movable and immovable loss is worth Rs 15,000 crore due to the cyclone."
The Chief Minister is also going to discuss the extent of damage caused by the cyclone in the state with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will also be visiting Odisha to assess the damage, at Kalaikunda Airbase on Friday in midst of her visit to different affected areas in East Midnapore, North and South 24-Parganas.
Giving importance to immediate initiation of relief work, Banerjee said: "We do not want anyone to get deprived of the government's support. We will extend support to each and every affected person irrespective of their political colour, caste, creed and religion."
"The state government officers will be implementing the entire process of relief distribution and no other words will have any significance in this connection. There should not be any complaints in regards to the distribution of relief," Banerjee said.
In the line of Duare Sarkar (the country's biggest outreach drive to help people get benefits of state-run schemes at their doorstep), the Chief Minister announced holding camps at every Gram Panchayat for 15 days from June 3 to 18 where an affected person can turn up physically, without anyone's help or involvement, to drop an application stating the damage or loss he or she has incurred due to the cyclone.
The applications will be thoroughly scrutinised or verified by a set of state government officers from June 19 to 30. Subsequently, the state government will initiate giving the compensation from July 1 by directly transferring the benefit to the beneficiary's bank account. It will be completed by July 8.
The Chief Minister has also announced the setting up of a task force headed by Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay for proper implementation of the Duare Tran programme.
Banerjee has also come down heavily on the Additional Chief Secretary of the state Irrigation and Waterways department Naveen Prakash questioning the reason behind embankments getting washed away despite crores of rupees being spent by her government to build the same after last year's Super Cyclone Amphan. She also ordered a probe by the state Finance department into the utilisation of funds released to carry out the reconstruction of the embankments and setting up of a task force to monitor all the further tendering and execution processes in the PWD and Irrigation department.
This comes when major parts of affected districts are still underwater and the situation has further worsened with continuous rainfall on Thursday as an after effect of the cyclone that hit the state at a gusting speed of 155 kmph.
At least 300 kms of roads have been damaged only in the Sunderbans that will be taken care of by the Sunderbans Affairs department with villages in Sandeshkhali, Namkhana, Patharpratima, Basanti, Canning, Budge Budge, Digha, Shankarpur, Tajpur, Ramnagar, Contai and Nandigram that are still underwater with homeless people staying at cyclone shelters.
Banerjee also directed the state Panchayats and Rural Development department to undertake necessary steps for repairing roads that got damaged in other rural areas due to the cyclone.
Banerjee has lauded the role of all agencies that worked in a coordinated manner to fight against the cyclone and also appreciated the work done by the state Power department as supply has been restored in most of the places. Major loss of cattle has been averted with the Animal Resource Department having taken proactive steps to set up 500 rescue shelters.
Banerjee also directed the state Health Secretary to talk to the Indian Medical Association urging them to press doctors at the affected blocks. Nigam informed the Chief Minister that power in most state-run health facilities has been restored in record time and special care was taken for the safety of pregnant women. Banerjee also urged to engage Gramin Sasthya Parisevak (quacks) in the affected areas.
According to the Regional Meteorological Centre at Alipore, the deep depression (remnant of very severe cyclonic storm Yaas) over south Jharkhand moved nearly northwards with a speed of about 9 kmph during the past six hours and weakened into a depression that lay centred over central parts of Jharkhand. It is very likely to move nearly northwards and weaken into a "well marked" low-pressure area during the next 12 hours. As a result, there is an "Orange Warning" with forecasts of heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places over Birbhum, West Burdwan, Darjeeling and Kalimpong. There will be heavy rain at isolated places over Kolkata, North and South 24 Parganas, East Burdwan, East and West Midnapore, Jhargram, Bankura, Nadia, Howrah, Hooghly, Murshidabad, Purulia, Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar, Alipurduar, Malda, North and South Dinajpur. The fishermen were advised not to venture into the sea.
In Kolkata, there was intermittent rainfall the entire day with Alipore, Salt Lake and Dum Dum receiving 75 mm, 43 mm and 59 mm rainfall respectively.