Central team lukewarm on national calamity label

“The damage is extensive. However,we were not sent to classify it as a national calamity. We are sent to assess the damage and submit a report to the Union government. The decision on releasing funds will be taken by the Centre as per the guidelines of the National Calamity Contingency Funds,” said Lavasa.

The state government,in turn,made it clear that it no longer wanted the tag of national calamity for the situation. “It is irrelevant now. Even without such status,the Centre can release Rs 1,000 crore we demanded,” said state Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta,who chaired the meeting between the Central team and the state officials.

Left Front chairman Biman Bose,however,said: “Considering the magnitude of damage,it should be declared as a national calamity by the Centre. During disasters like Bhuj earthquake and Kosi floods,MPs donated amount from their MPLAD funds. In present case also,MPs cross the country and MLAs from the state should donate from their Local Area Development funds,” said Bose.

Dasgupta said the team was convinced about the severity of the damage. “They asked us questions like how we will have cultivation since most of the area was inundated with saline water,we told them we will use seeds developed at our Chinsura Rice Reseach Institute,” Dasgupta said.

“We visited a few relief camps and got very little time to assess the situation. However,we have seen that saline water has flooded most of the agricultural lands. It will take time to restore them,” said Lavasa.

Asked whether they were satisfied with the amount of relief supplied to the affected areas,Lavasa said,“We are satisfied with the relief distributed at places we visited. The state faces a major challenge of rebuilding the completely damaged houses of victims.”

Bose said the state needed concrete embankments as have been constructed in Bangladesh and the Scandinavian countries.