Following cyclone Amphan’s landfall in West Bengal on Wednesday afternoon, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee along with Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha will take stock of the situation from the Emergency Operation Centre at the state secretariat, Nabanna. According to the state secretariat sources, the CM would stay at Nabanna throughout the night to monitor the situation. The CM has already ordered the officials of the affected districts to assess the cyclone-inflicted damage. She also kept in constant touch with the DMs, sources said. Read| Cyclone Amphan: 10 dead in Bengal, Mamata says disaster 'bigger than Covid' The Bengal government has also formed rapid response teams to ensure that tigers from Sundarbans in South 24 Parganas district do not stray into nearby human settlements after the landfall. She is also scheduled to hold a meeting with top officials of the state government on Thursday. A senior official of state secretariat said, "With the ongoing crisis due to the Covid-19 situation, relief operation and restoration work will become very difficult. So, the Chief Minister is worried and wants to start relief work as early as possible.” Cyclone Amphan, one of the worst cyclones over the Bay of Bengal, lay centred about 170 km south of West Bengal’s Digha on Wednesday. About 4.5 lakh people have been evacuated from vulnerable areas in West Bengal and Odisha ahead of its landfall. ‘Amphan’, termed as an extremely severe cyclonic storm made a landfall at 4pm near Sunderbans in West Bengal. It was moved north-northeastwards after landfall and passed on to Kolkata in its eastern side, causing extensive damage and flooding of low-lying areas in the city, the Met department said. It issued an “orange message” for West Bengal, warning of extensive damage in Kolkata, Hooghly, Howrah, South and North 24 Parganas and East Midnapore districts. Meanwhile, the situation related to Cyclone Amphan, which has started landfall, is fast transforming and a close watch is being kept, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Director General S N Pradhan said on Wednesday. He said all 20 teams present in Odisha have been deployed, leaving none in reserve, while in West Bengal 19 teams have been deployed, while two have been kept in reserve. (With PTI)
