Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNews ReportsMamata Banerjee cries 'discrimination' over Cyclone Yaas money even as Met Dept predicts Odisha...

Mamata Banerjee cries ‘discrimination’ over Cyclone Yaas money even as Met Dept predicts Odisha will bear the worst impact

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said that Cyclone Yaas, which is likely to make landfall on Wednesday afternoon would likely spare Kolkata. Odisha's Balasore coast is expected to be the worst hit.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said that Cyclone Yaas, which is likely to make landfall on Wednesday afternoon would spare Kolkata and have less impact on the coastal Bengal, unlike last year’s Amphan which had hit South 24 Parganas and continued its devastation in Kolkata. The Met Dept said the Balasore coast in Odisha, around 240 km away from Kolkata will get the worst impact of the cyclone.

“In this case, Yaas would not even touch Bengal, so far, we have gathered information. It would hit Odisha,” said the Met official.

Mamata Banerjee cries ‘discrimination’ over advance relief fund

Despite this explicit information provided by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), West Bengal CM has latched on to the opportunity to once again play the victim and cast aspersions on the Modi government. She has already started claiming that the central government is showing discrimination towards West Bengal over the advance relief compensation for Cyclone Yaas.

While addressing a press conference, Mamata Banerjee said: “MHA assured an advance relief of Rs 600 crores to Odisha and Andhra Pradesh but only Rs 400 crores to West Bengal. This is discriminatory.”

Mamata Banerjee’s similar shenanigans during last year’s Amphan

Interestingly, during last year’s Amaphan, despite PM Modi clearly announcing advanced interim assistance of Rs 1,000 crore for the cyclone-hit West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee had alleged that there was no clarity on the economic assistance provided by the central government.

It is also notable here that the TMC government’s Amphan relief saw massive allegations of corruption and party cadre were given compensation for cyclone damage. The reports of undeserving candidates receiving compensation for cyclone relief just because of their association with TMC had caused a major embarrassment for the Mamata government last year.

IMD specifies the impact of cyclone Yaas would not be as severe on WB as Odisha

Here it becomes imperative to restate that the Indian Meteorological Department has clearly stated that the impact of the tropical cyclone Yaas would not be that severe on West Bengal as it would be on Odisha. It said that mainly the coastal districts of Bengal, along with Gangetic Bengal, would get heavy to very heavy rainfalls because of the cyclone.

Significance of colour-coded warnings by IMD

While the Met Dept has issued a red alert in 8 districts of Odisha, around 20 districts in West Bengal have been declared orange zone by the Met office.

For the uninitiated, the Met department has four colour-coded warnings that it flashes depending on how intense or violent a weather system is at a given point in time. The four colours are green, yellow, orange and red.

Orange: Meaning “Be prepared”. The IMD issues the orange alert as a warning for extremely bad weather, electricity blackouts and the possibility of communication disruptions, including road and rail closures.

Red: The IMD issues the highest level of warning—indicating that bad weather is going to upend travel and power and pose a significant risk to life.

Home Ministery prepares for the approaching Cyclone Yaas

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had chaired a review meeting with chief ministers of West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and lieutenant governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands to discuss the preparedness for very severe cyclone Yaas.

During the video conference, Amit Shah evaluated the situation and allotted Rs 600 crore each for Odisha and Andhra Pradesh and Rs 400 crore for West Bengal.

As part of the preparations in view of Cyclone Yaas, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), functioning under the Ministry of Home Affairs, has deployed more than 100 teams in six states, including Odisha and West Bengal. Moreover, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has also kept 11 transport aircraft and 25 helicopters ready to carry out humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations as part of preparations to deal with the situation arising out of Cyclone Yaas.

Ayodhra Ram Mandir special coverage by OpIndia

  Support Us  

Whether NDTV or 'The Wire', they never have to worry about funds. In name of saving democracy, they get money from various sources. We need your support to fight them. Please contribute whatever you can afford

OpIndia Staff
OpIndia Staffhttps://www.opindia.com
Staff reporter at OpIndia

Related Articles

Trending now

Recently Popular

- Advertisement -

Connect with us

255,564FansLike
665,518FollowersFollow
41,500SubscribersSubscribe