PM Modi chairs review meeting to take stock of impact of Cyclone Yaas in Odisha; also to visit West Bengal

The meeting, held at the Bhubaneswar airport soon after his arrival, was attended by Governor Prof. Ganeshi Lal, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister Pratap Chandra Sarangi and other senior level officials.

Later, the Prime Minister also made an aerial survey of the North Odisha districts impacted by the very severe cyclonic storm recently.
 
AIR correspondent reports, Odisha Government has sought the Centre’s support for long-term cyclone mitigation.

Briefing media in capital Bhubaneswar soon after the review meeting, Pradip Kumar Jena, Special Relief Commissioner of the state said that the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, thanked the Prime Minister for having visited Odisha and requested him to consider a long-term and robust cyclone mitigation infrastructure for a cyclone prone state like Odisha.

Mr. Jena said that the State Government today made a video presentation on the cyclone before the Prime Minister and put forth two specific proposals before him on long-term disaster resilient power system and coastal storm surge protection system.

He said that out of the 480-kilometre long coastline of Odisha, about 400 to 450 km stretch is vulnerable to cyclone induced storm surges.

He said, the Prime Minister was duly apprised of the need to strengthen the saline embankment along the coast.

He said that the State Government has not asked for any financial package from the Centre as of now and that the damage assessment report will be submitted in about a week’s time.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be conducting an aerial survey of the affected areas of West Bengal and hold a review meeting at Kalaikunda of Paschim Medinipur today.

Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar is scheduled to attend the review meeting. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to hand over the assessment of damage faced by the state due to the disaster and demand allocation of necessary funds for relief and rehabilitation from the Central Government.

The Centre has already announced compensation of over Rs. 400 crore in advance for the damage caused by Cyclone Yaas.

The State Administration is stressing upon proper distribution of relief materials to the affected people in relief camps and shelters.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has done an aerial survey of the affected areas of North and South 24 Parganas this morning and attended review meetings in Hingolgunje and Sagar of the two districts.

All departments have been asked to work with close coordination and ensure that no one faces problems regarding relief items, particularly food, baby food and drinking water.

She said that the administration will be conducting ‘Duarey Traan’ or relief at your door camps from 3rd to 18th of June at block and village level where people can submit applications regarding damages done.

After assessment, the government will transfer the amount directly to their bank accounts from 1st of July.

In North 24 Parganas, more than 16.5 lakh people have been affected by the impact of the very severe cyclone Yaas and high tide.

Over 40 thousand hectare agricultural land, 1,600 kilometres of road is affected.

The Chief Minister will also be doing an aerial survey of Purba Medinipur and hold a review meeting at Digha later today.