Central team to assess quantum of loss due to Amphan in state

Kolkata: An Inter-Ministerial Central Team (ICMT) headed by a Joint Secretary rank officer of the Home Ministry will visit North and South 24-Parganas on Friday to take stock of the damage caused due to Super Cyclone Amphan.

They will undertake an on-spot assessment of the destruction caused by the cyclone that hit the state 15 days back on May 20.

The seven-member team headed by Joint Commissioner of the Ministry of Home Affairs Anuj Sharma landed in Kolkata at 6.30 pm on Thursday by a special flight.

The other members of the team are Director of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Narendra Kumar, Assistant Commissioner of Department of Fisheries R P Dubey, Director (FCD) of Department of Expenditure S C Meena, Superintending Engineer (Ministry of Jal Shakti) Sidhartha Mitra, Director of Ministry of Power Rishika Sharan and Executive Engineer of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways Samiran Saha.

They will get divided into two teams with the first one visiting the North 24-Parganas while the other will go to the South 24-Parganas.

Some members of the ICMT that will visit South 24-Parganas will reach Patharpratima by helicopter while others will travel by road. They will be shown a small presentation at Patharpratima College on the havoc caused by the cyclone. They will then be taken to the most badly affected areas at Brajaballavpur, Ramganga and Bharatala by a launch from Patharpratima.

Similarly, some members of the ICMT for North 24-Parganas will be taken to Sarberia in a chopper while others will reach there by car. After a brief meeting at Dhamakhali, they will be visiting the cyclone-hit areas including Sandeshkhali I and II and Nazat-I block.

They are also scheduled to hold a meeting with the state government top brass headed by Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha at Nabanna on Saturday after their visit to the two badly affected districts. They will leave Kolkata at 8.25 pm on Saturday.

The ICMT members will be treated as state guests and all the concerned departments have been directed to assist them in carrying out the assessment thoroughly.

During his visit on May 22, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken about a visit by the Central team to assess the damage caused by Amphan and had announced an interim grant of Rs 1,000 crore.

Questions had started cropping up at various quarters over the delay in the visit of the Central team as they did not turn up even after two weeks had passed.

When asked about the issue on Wednesday during a Press conference at Nabanna, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said it would be better for them to come early for the assessment of the damage caused by the cyclone as reconstruction work has already started and is going on in full swing. "We will put forward our report prepared after assessing the damages caused by the cyclone," Banerjee said.