Bengal begins evacuation from low-lying coastal areas amid heavy rain forecast

Kolkata: The West Bengal government has started moving people from low-lying areas and deployed disaster management personnel in the coastal districts amid a forecast for heavy rains due to a low-pressure area over the Bay of Bengal, an official said on Wednesday.

Leaves of all officers in these districts have been cancelled in the wake of the forecast, he said. Disaster management and civil defence personnel have been deployed in Shankarpur, Digha and Tajpur in Purba Medinipur district, and Namkhana, Gangasagar, Pathar Pratima and Kakdwip in the South 24 Parganas district, he said.

“We have taken all sorts of measures in the coastal areas. People in the low-lying areas have been shifted to shelters, in schools and hotels. An adequate number of tarpaulins, medicines for snakebite, and dry food have been sent to these places as a part of the precautionary measure,” the official said.

The administration is also making announcements on loudspeakers, asking the people in these areas to remain alert for the next three days, he said.

Fishermen have been asked not to venture into the sea, and tourists have also been directed to stay away from the beaches, he added.

“Control rooms have been set up in all 13 blocks of the Sundarbans in addition to the one at the sub-divisional office,” an officer of the Sundarbans police district said.

The Irrigation Department was also alerted and asked to take measures to maintain the embankments during this period, he said.