With cyclone Sitrang hurtling up the Bay of Bengal towards Bengal-Bangladesh coast, the Bengal Government braced up for all exigencies, senior State Minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim said.
Taking lessons from the ferocity of previous storms Aila, Yash or Titli the district administrations of all the south Bengal districts including North and South 24 Parganas, East Midnapore, and Nadia have been put on high alert senior officials at State secretariat at Nabanna said adding the fishermen have been warned against venturing out in the deep seas. The above mentioned districts could receive heavy to very heavy rainfall, sources said.
“The administration in the low lying areas have resorted to miking and have started evacuating the people to higher areas, shelters have been kept ready,” sources said. Leave of government employees in the departments concerned have been cancelled and “the NDRF and SDRF and the police havce been put on high alert,” the Minister said.
With Kali Puja and Diwali falling on the same day the revellers and Puja organisers have been asked to exercise utmost caution, the minister said.
The deep depression hovering over the Bay of Bengal was likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm and make a landfall at Tinkona Islands off Barishal district in Bangladesh, the officials at regional IMD office in Kolkata said adding the wind speed could be around 60-70 kmph and their could be an ocassioinal gush of about 90 kmph.
The cyclonic depression was about 740 km away from Barishal when reports last came in. This was the first cyclonic depression after the monsoon this year, officials said.
There could be rains in Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura under the impact of the cyclone, sources said.