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News Desk: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has directed top police officials in the state to increase vigilance and conduct raids in areas where carcasses of cattle killed during Cyclone Yaas could be getting sold to hotels and restaurants.
“There are people who sell the meat of dead animals to hotels and restaurants. Later these are sold to customers. Earlier, we had busted one such racket. Check the places and find out whether they are being stored and sold. Seize them and take immediate action. Cremate the carcasses,” the chief minister said.
Concerned over the extent of damage due to frequent cyclones, Banerjee had last week formed a task force to chalk out ‘natural ways’ to save embankments from natural calamities in future.
While having an administrative meeting to take stock of the post ‘Yaas’ situation, she said, “Every year cyclones are happening here. Bengal became the most affected State by the cyclone. It is causing a huge loss to the State exchequer. Today more than 138 embankments were damaged. It is not possible to build or repair embankments every year. I think we have to think out of the box. We have dealt with the problem differently and innovatively. I would like to request all to come forward with their innovative ideas so that we can reduce the extent of damage during such natural calamities.”
She said, “There are trees like mangroves which help in strengthening the embankments. This is just an example. There should be many innovative ways to preserve agricultural lands and irrigation from such disasters. We are getting information that several hectares of agricultural lands were destroyed after saltwater entered the farmland due to high tide which the embankments failed to sustain.”
“The Central government doesn’t give us funds to repair damaged embankments. We are still waiting for funds earmarked for Cyclone Amphan. I think we need a concrete solution to protect the embankments during such a crisis and therefore, today I am forming a task force under the leadership of Alapan Bandopadhyay. This task force will comprise officials from the forest, finance, home, disaster irrigation, agricultural and environment departments. Their job will be to come out with ideas on how effectively we can handle situations like cyclones in terms of saving the farmlands. They will also submit to me a detailed report on the extent of damage caused due to Cyclone ‘Yaas’. They will assess the damage and they will submit a report within 72 hours,” she added.
The Chief Minister also said that she will personally visit some of the affected areas in Midnapore, South 24-Parganas, North 24-Parganas on May 28 including Hingalganj, Sundarban, Sagar, Digha.
Mamata said that the sectors like agriculture, electricity, fishery, animal husbandry, horticulture were the worst affected due to Cyclone ‘Yaas’. “The task force will assess the actual damage only after the field survey. Total 15 lakh people were evacuated. More than 1 crore people were affected by Cyclone ‘Yaas’,” she said while thanking nearly 3 lakh rescue and relief workers who are deployed at various places in Bengal to assist the affected people.
She asked South 24-Parganas district administration officials to make arrangements to evacuate 20,000 people from Sagar Island and Mousuni island ahead of high tides on June 11 and 26 as the embankments breached during Cyclone Yaas at those places would not be repaired before the end of the current month.
“There were breaches in river embankments at 317 places. Most of the breaches would be repaired by June 21, but a few breaches at Sagar Island and Mousuni Island would not be repaired before July 31. So, nearly 20,000 people would be required to be evacuated during the coming high tides,” the chief minister said during a review meeting with officials of different departments at Nabanna on Monday.
Sources said the irrigation department had taken initiatives to repair damaged embankments almost immediately after Yaas had hit the state.
“But all breaches could not be repaired as agencies engaged for the work could not reach certain places with construction material because of stagnation of water,” said an official.
Water stagnation has become a serious problem in 63 gram panchayats spread across 14 blocks, mainly in South 24-Parganas and North 24-Parganas, since the cyclone.
Mamata pointed out during the meeting that those gram panchayats might face health-related issues and scarcity of drinking water.
“The health department should take care of the issue. The public health engineering (PHE) should distribute water pouches to ensure that people get safe drinking water. The PHE should try to install deep tube-wells at places which are not prone to frequent inundation,” she said.
The chief minister also instructed the irrigation department to display the details of the work carried out to repair the damaged embankments. “People will get to know what kind of work was carried out in their areas,” said the chief minister.
The sources said the move was considered to be significant as the chief minister was laying stress on repairing the embankments properly. Now, the agencies will face a kind of social audit, which is required in case of government projects, to minimise corruption.
The state government has received more than 1 lakh applications seeking compensation after Cyclone Yaas.
Bengal chief secretary H. K. Dwivedi said people in many areas could not reach out to the camps set up to receive applications. “We are planning some ways to collect applications from the affected people,” said the chief secretary.
Mamata Banerjee instructed all the district officials to keep a close watch on the block level relief operation so that no one should be deprived of any kind of assistance provided by the State government. She also asked the district officials to provide adequate drinking water and food to all the affected people.
