Task force conducts meet for calamity relief at Nabanna

Kolkata: The task force headed by Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha, which was constituted by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday to review the relief and rehabilitation work to deal with the damages caused by cyclonic storm Bulbul, held its first meeting at Nabanna on Tuesday morning.

The Chief Secretary took stock of the damage caused by the cyclone Bulbul and also monitored the ongoing relief and repair work undertaken under the leadership of the district magistrates of the affected districts.

A Central team of disaster management is expected to visit the areas affected by the cyclone later this month. The Centre has already held a video conference with officials of the cyclone affected states of Bengal.

"Nine districts have been affected by the severe cyclone and six have suffered major damage. The compilation process is still going on. There will be a better picture of the extent of damage by Wednesday," a senior Nabanna official said.

As per preliminary report, six lakh people have been affected and around 1.78 lakhs have been rescued. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who had conducted an aerial survey of Namkhana and Bakkhali, which were severely affected by the cyclone would visit the cyclone-affected areas of Basirhat in North 24-Parganas on Wednesday morning.

Altogether, 9.15 lakh hectare of agricultural land spread over six districts — South 24 Parganas, North 24-Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly, East Midnapore and West Midnapore have bore the brunt of the severe cyclonic storm and major agricultural products like paddy (Aman), potato, vegetables, pulses, mustard, flower and betel leaves have been damaged.

According to sources in the state Power department the number of 11 KV (or less) substations that have been damaged are 41, the number of 33 KV substations damaged are 54, number of electric poles uprooted are 6739 , number of transformers destroyed are 47. The damage that has been estimated till now is over Rs 9 crores.

A team from West Bengal Radio Club – a group of ham radio enthusiasts – worked in co-ordination with the Disaster Management team and the police.

The team had reached Sunderban area on Friday soon after the prediction of the cyclone.

"We set up our control rooms in several areas and soon after the storm telecommunication was badly affected. Our team played their part in establishing communication so that the administration could remain in constant touch and start work of restoration on a war footing," said Ambarish Nag Biswas, secretary of WBRC.

Tourism infrastructure has suffered reasonable damage due to the cyclone and all major tourist destinations like Bakkhali, Henry's Island., Sunderbans, Sagar, Mousuni Islands have been affected

A senior official of the Forest department said the estimated damage to property and plantation has been to the tune of Rs 5 crores. "The electricity connections in our camps inside forests and supply of drinking water for our staff or guards were through solar panels. These have been badly damaged. Roofs of a number of camp offices in Sunderbans have been blown away. The nylon net fencing to prevent straying of tigers into human territory has also suffered damage. East Midnapore district has hand damage to plantations as river water caused inundation in some parts," the official said.

Senior officials of Panchayet, Public Works Department, Agriculture and Agri Marketing department , Irrigation, Power, Forest , Tourism etc were present at the meeting.