Apprehending that the cyclone Laila may move to West Bengal after hitting coastal Andhra Pradesh at Machilipatnam on Thursday morning, the state government has taken all precautionary arrangements. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has himself asked his cabinet colleague — finance minister Asim Dasgupta — to take
stock at the situation. In the afternoon, Dr Dasgupta chaired a high-level meeting, which was attended by disaster management minister Mortaza Hossain, chief secretary Ardhendu Sen, home secretary Samar Ghosh, state director general of police Bhupinder Singh, director of the Alipore Met office G.C. Debnath and other senior officials.
After the meeting, Dr Dasgupta said, “Districts like East Midnapore, West Midnapore, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Kolkata, Howrah, Hooghly and Nadia are likely to get heavy rainfall accompanied with storm from Thursday evening as the cyclone Laila would move to North-east direction after hitting Machilipatnam. We have instructed the administration of those districts to not allow any fisherman to sea or river. We have also asked them to relocate the people, who are living close to the coastal areas, to safer places. In addition, we have made arrangements to send tarpaulins and garments to the districts.”
The state government has made these arrangements as precaution after getting experience from the devastating cyclone Aila in 2009.
Mr Debnath, however, said that there is nothing to panic. “There may be a marginal cyclone in the state with a wind speed of 70-75 kilometre per hour coupled with rainfall,” he added.