Kolkata, May 26: Very severe cyclonic storm ‘Yaas” destroyed tens of thousands of mud houses in eastern India on Wednesday, forcing the closure of the busiest regional airport in the city.
As a precaution, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport (NSCBIA) in the city has closed for operations from 8.30 am to 7.45 pm and no flights will be operating to or from Kolkata, officials said.
The state government has set up a round-the-clock control room in the secretariat annexe to monitor the situation.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee spent the night in the state secretariat, Nabanna reviewing preparations and monitoring the situation on the ground.
Ms Banerjee has kept in touch with the magistrates of 20 districts.
The chief minister on Wednesday said police, NDRF, Army personnel have been deployed in different places to rescue villagers.
She said Troops were deployed in 10 districts to deal with the situation. About 17 companies have been deployed in North and South 24 Parganas, West Midnapore, Jhargram, Birbhum, Purulia, Burdwan, Howrah, Hooghly and Nadia.
Ms Banerjee told reporters that about 20,000 mud houses and temporary shelters had been damaged in the state.
She said, “In Midnapore 70 km embankment flooded and in South 24 Parganas at least 15 areas, seawater entered into the villages.”
“The people of Nandigram also called me some time ago. They said, in Sonachura and kendamari area already flooded,” the chief minister said.
“Because of high tide with the cyclonic storm, it became havoc in the coastal districts. Already we evacuated 11.5 lakh people and requesting them not to return to their house. As the situation will worsen, we are saying that, please return house only when we will confirm that, no further devastation will happen,” Ms Banerjee said.
The chief minister said besides, about 64,000 workers of disaster management, municipality, panchayat, PWD, power, irrigation and agriculture departments have been on duty for the last 24 hours.
The government’s target is to prevent casualties.
In addition to this, continuous efforts are being made to reduce the damage to public and private property so that it can be repaired quickly. Besides, speed boats, tree felling machines and ambulances have been set up to deal with the disaster. In addition to Nabanna, all municipalities, panchayats, district DM offices have been opened and control has already been evacuated 1.5 million people, she said.
Bhubaneswar, May 25: Over two lakh people from ten coastal districts of Odisha were evacuated to safer places till 4 PM as the very severe cyclonic storm ‘YAAS’ moved further into north Odisha coast to make landfall in between Dhamra and Balasore in the early hours of Wednesday
State Relief Commissioner(SRC) Pradip Kumar Jena said the evacuation process will continue till 2100 hours tonight and the state government has targeted to shift about 7.5 lakh people to safer places.
He said as per the latest IMD forecast the very severe cyclonic storm YAAS will have landfall at about 0430 hours to 0500 hours of Wednesday morning between Dhamra and Balasore, more likely in between Basudebpur and Bahanaga of Bhadrak district.
Mr, Jena said after landfall the cyclone would move further towards Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar and expected to cross Odisha by Wednesday evening.
SRC sources said out of over two lakh people a majority of 74,132 have already been evacuated from Balasore district,73,103 from Bhadrak district and 41,685 from Kendrapara district.
The state government has deployed 52 NDRF teams, 60 ODRAF teams,206 Fire services teams, 86 OFDC teams and over 400 other Response teams in the relief and rescue operation in 12 districts in the state.
Mr Jena said the government is focusing on 77 blocks described as high intensity where the impact of cyclone Yaas will be severe and accordingly made arrangements of evacuating the people from this zone by tonight.
The Cyclone, which is now centred about 280 km south-southeast of Paradip, is expected to cross the Odisha coast at Soro-Bahanaga in Balasore district on Wednesday morning, according to the Centre of Environment and Climate (CEC) of Siksha ‘O’Anusandhan (SOA) here.
The system is likely to move in a north- northwesterly direction and while crossing the coast the wind speed could be around 100 km per hour gusting to 120 km per hour, Director of CEC Dr Sarat Chandra Sahu said.
He said the landfall could occur any time between midnight and 4 am on Wednesday morning.
Dr Sahu said light to moderate rain would be experienced in Bhubaneswar with wind speed reaching 40 km per hour gusting to 50 km per hour by this evening.
The wind speed might vary between 70 km and 100 km per hour in the coastal belt stretching from Jagatsinghpur to Balasore district from this afternoon.
Heavy to very heavy rainfall could occur at many places with extremely heavy fall likely at few places in the districts of Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Jajpur, Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Dhenkanal and Angul from tonight, he said.
The districts of Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Jajpur and Dhenkanal could experience more than 250 mm of precipitation, Dr Sahu said
However, the SRC said wind velocity in the coastal parts of Odisha would increase after 9 PM tonight and at the time of landfall it would increase to 140 to 150 kmph with gusting 165 kmph.
New Delhi, May 24: The Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry on Monday announced one-time subsitence allowance of Rs 1500 each to transgenders as immediate support to their basic requirements amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Ministry’s announcement comes in the wake of distressed calls and emails by the members of the Transgender community seeking Government help and support in light of the current situation.
The government has also asked NGOs and Community-based Organisations(CBOs) working for Transgender to spread awareness about this step, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment said in a statement.
Any transgender person or CBOs on behalf of the transgender person can apply for financial assistance after providing basic details, Aadhar, and bank account number in a form available on the website of the National Institute of Social Defence.
The form is also being circulated on social media with the help of NGOs and CBOs to ensure that it reaches maximum people of the beneficiary community, the ministry said.
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The ministry has also announced a free helpline for distressed transgender persons where they can seek psychological support and mental health care, much required during the pandemic.
Any transgender person can connect with experts on the helpline mumber 8882133897. On this helpline, counselling services will be provided by professional psychologists for their mental health.
A letter has also been written by the ministry to the principal secretaries of all states to ensure that there is no discrimination against transgender persons in existing Covid/vaccination centers. They have also been requested to conduct awareness drives especially reaching out to the transgender community in different vernaculars to ensure they are informed and aware of the vaccination process.
A request has also been made to the states to organise separate mobile vaccination centers or booths for vaccination of transgender persons such as those taken up in the states of Haryana and Assam.
During the first wave of the Covid-19, the ministry had provided a similar financial assistance to the community. Around Rs 98.50 lakh were distributed among 7000 transgender persons across India, the ministry said.
New Delhi, May 24: India reported 2,22,315 new cases of the Novel Coronavirus in the past 24 hours, the lowest since April 16 last month, taking the infection tally to 2,67,52,447, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday.
India’s COVID-19 death toll crossed the grim milestone of 3 lakh-mark, as the country also saw 4,454 more fatalities due to the virus, pushing the toll to 3,03,720. Now, India has become the third country in the world after the US and Brazil to traverse the grim milestone. On Sunday, the country recorded 3,741 deaths. The case fatality rate stands at 1.14 per cent.
On April 16, the country saw 2,17,353 cases.
With 3,02,544 recoveries recorded in the last 24 hours, India’s daily recoveries outnumbered the new Covid cases for the eleventh consecutive day. On Sunday, India reported 3,55,102 recoveries.
The active caseload in the country is 27,20,716 comprising 10.17 per cent of the total infections while 2,37,28,011 people have recovered from disease so far, amounting 88.69 per cent of the recovery rate.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 33,05,36,064 samples have been tested so far for coronavirus, of which 19,28,127 tests were conducted in the past one day.
On the vaccination front, total 19,60,51,962 people have been vaccinated across the country till now, of which 9,42,722 doses administered in the past 24 hours.
Maharashtra, which has been the most-affected state in the country, saw highest 1,320 deaths in the past 24 hours, followed by Karnataka (624), Tamil Nadu (422 ), UP (231), Punjab (192), Delhi (189), Kerala (188), West Bengal (156), Bihar (107), and Andhra Pradesh (104).
In term of cases, Tamil Nadu continues to report highest cases, as 35,483 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours, followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka with 26,672 and 25,979 cases, respectively.
On Sunday, India had registered 2,40,842 Covid-19 cases.
New Delhi, May 22: India reported 2,57,299 new cases of the Novel Coronavirus in the past 24 hours, taking the infection tally to 2,62,89,290, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.
Besides, the country also saw 4,194 more fatalities due to the virus, pushing the toll to 2,95,525. On Friday, the country recorded 4,209 deaths.
With 3,57,630 recoveries recorded in the last 24 hours, India’s daily recoveries outnumbered the new Covid cases for the ninth consecutive day. On Friday, India reported 3,57,295 recoveries.
The active caseload in the country is 29,23,400 comprising 11.12 per cent of the total infections while 2,30,70,365 people have recovered from disease so far amounting 87.76 per cent of the recovery rate.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 32,64,84,155 samples have been tested so far for coronavirus, of which 20,66,285 tests were conducted in the past one day, the highest tests done in one day. The previous highest tests in a day were conducted on Friday (20,61,683).
Meanwhile, the case fatality rate stands at 1.12 per cent.
On the vaccination front, total 19,33,72,819 people have been vaccinated across the country till now, of which 14,58,895 doses administered in the past 24 hours.
Maharashtra, which has been the most-affected state in the country, saw highest 1,263 deaths in the past 24 hours, followed by Tamil Nadu (467 ), Karnataka (353), Delhi (252), Punjab (172), UP (172), West Bengal (159), Kerala (142), Rajasthan (129), Uttarakhand (116), Haryana (112), Andhra Pradesh (104) and Chhattisgarh (96).
On Friday, India had registered 2,59,591 new Covid-19 cases and 4,209 deaths.
Reykjavik, May 20: The Arctic Council, during it’s 12th ministerial meeting here on Thursday unanimously adopted a new strategic plan for the region’s development till 2030.
Icelandic Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development Cooperation Gudlaugur Thor Thordarson introduced the 10-year strategic plan. The plan was adopted unanimously as
none of the delegates objected.
The forum also marked the Arctic Council’s 25th anniversary and the transfer of the two-year chairmanship from Iceland to Russia.
As the new chair, Russia expects to ensure
investment, research and trade projects in the Arctic for the sustainable development of the region.
The concept was developed in line with the goals set by President Vladimir Putin in the 2035 Arctic Strategy. It emphasizes the role of the council as a key association for coordinating international activities in the region and strengthening relations between Arctic states.
The Arctic Council was established in 1996 as a high-level intergovernmental forum promoting cooperation in the region with a focus on environmental protection. The council includes Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Canada, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States.