As it takes a natural calamity to bring Narendra Modi and Mamata Banerjee to return to the dialogue table the Prime Minister and Bengal Chief Minister will hold a brief discussion on the extent of damage left by super cyclone Yaas that on Wednesday hit coastal Bengal and Odisha.
The duo will speak to each other for the first time since the Trinamool Congress roared back to power on May 2 defeating BJP in the State Assembly elections which saw unprecedented washing of dirty linen in public.
The Prime Minister would meet her on Friday at Kalaikunda airport from where he would fly off to Delhi after making an aerial survey of Odisha and parts of East Midnapore, Banerjee on Thursday said.
Bengal might have suffered a loss in the vicinity of Rs 15,000 crore in the super cyclone that conspired with a full moon high tide to burst 134 dams and inundate large tracts of land with saline water leaving lakhs of fishes dead, rendering thousands of village ponds useless and reducing thousands of hectares of land unworthy of cultivation in four districts of East Midnapore, two 24 Parganas and Howrah the Chief Minister informed.
“The Prime Minister is coming to Bengal tomorrow. He will first go to Balasore, Jaleswar and Bhadrak in Odisha and after that, he will land at Kalaikunda in West Midnapore via Digha in East Midnapore to assess the extent of damage, due to cyclone Yaas. He will meet me at Kalaikunda” enroute to Delhi, Banerjee said adding after her meeting with the Prime Minister she would herself go to Digha from where she would make an aerial survey of East Midnapore the next day.
Before meeting Modi the Chief Minister Banerjee would make an aerial survey of the villages of North and South 24 Parganas. “Before the meeting with the PM, I will have an aerial survey at Sandeshkhali and Hingalganj in North 24 Parganas. Then, I will visit Sagar Island at South 24 Parganas to review the damage and devastation due to post Yaas,” Banerjee said adding though it would not be immediately possible to calculate the extent of damage “a preliminary ground report received by me puts it at about Rs 15,000 crore considering the loss of both moveable and immoveable properties.”
The Chief Minister who on Thursday sanctioned an initial government grant of Rs 1,000 crore said her Government would start “Duarey Traan” (relief at doorsteps) programme “where a task force of government officials will first visit the localities to assess the damage and accept application forms from the people seeking help and then “after making an assessment the Government will directly send the relief amount to the accounts of the people affected.”
Interestingly in an apparent bid to avoid controversy the local TMC leadership and panchayats are being kept out of the monetary part of the relief programme one was told. The whole process of assessment of loss and granting of relief would take a month’s time, the Chief Minister said adding sectors like agriculture, electricity, fishery, animal husbandry, horticulture were the worst affected due to the cyclone.
To avoid allegations, “regarding hoarding of relief materials that embarrassed the state administration,” post cyclone Amphan last “this time the Chief Minister will personally instruct officials and supervise the relief operations and ensure that they reach the affected,” a senior official at the CMO said adding while more than a one crore of people were affected by the cyclone “a total 15 lakh people have been evacuated and are presently kept at various shelter homes.”