West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has voiced her concern regarding the flood-like conditions in the state.
She informed that around 10,000 individuals have been successfully rescued and are currently sheltered in 190 relief camps situated across nine districts in both the southern and northern regions of the state, PTI reported.
Despite her ongoing recovery from a leg injury, Banerjee assured that she is personally overseeing the situation non-stop from her residence. As a precautionary measure to manage the flood situation effectively, she also announced the cancellation of leaves for several state government officials.
West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose is scheduled to visit the flood-affected districts in the northern part of the state on Thursday.
The northern part of West Bengal shares a border with Sikkim which witnessed a flash flood in the Teesta River leaving at least 10 people dead, scores injured and around 80 others missing.
Taking stock of the situation at a meeting, Banerjee asked Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi and Home Secretary BP Gopalika to immediately send a team of senior officials to flood-affected areas of West Bengal. “We have already rescued 10,000 people from low-lying areas in the districts. Already SDRF and NDRF teams have been alerted. I will monitor the situation 24/7 from home with a leg injury which may require another week to recover,” she said.
Altogether 5,800 people were evacuated in Kalimpong, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts in the northern part of the state, while 5,018 others were rescued in Howrah, Hooghly, Paschim Medinipur, Purulia and Bankura districts in the south, the state government said in a statement.
Banerjee also directed Dwivedi to start a 24-hour control room for people to register complaints due to the flood.
The statement said that the NH-10 connecting Sikkim’s capital Gangtok and Siliguri, the largest city in northern West Bengal, has been completely washed away near the Likhuvir-Setijhora stretch. Immediate repairs on war footing will be taken up as and when the water recedes in Teesta.
The chief minister also said adequate relief camps were opened in the state and urged the affected people not to take any chance and go to these shelters. Twenty-eight relief camps were opened in the northern part of the state and 190 in the south.
