West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said nine lakh people have been evacuated from the coastal areas of the State in view of impending cyclone ‘Yaas’.
Ms. Banerjee told journalists that the landfall of ‘Yaas’ is going to coincide with the full moon high tide, which raises the danger of breaching of embankments in several areas.
“The water in rivers and seas swell up during full moon high tide. One can easily look at the Ganga and see how much water has risen,” she said.
The government, she stated, had taken lessons from cyclone ‘Amphan’ (May 2020) when the government had evacuated 10 lakh people. “We have evacuated nine lakh people so far. These people are housed in 4,000 cyclone shelters.”
The Chief Minister said she would spend the night at the State Secretarait (Nabanna Buildings) monitoring the situation as the cyclone is likely to make a landfall after Wednesday morning.
Ms. Banerjee, who spoke to the District Magistrates, said the Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary were in constant touch with officials. “We have a work force of 74,000 people on ground, which includes officers and personnel of different departments to combat the cyclone. If we put together police and other agencies, the number of manpower is about three lakh," she added.
