The death toll due to Cyclone Amphan in West Bengal has risen to 85, as frustrated residents resorted to protest and road blockades in various parts of the city over the administration’s failure to revive normalcy even after three days.
With normal life thrown out of drugs by the region’s worst natural disasters, the authorities scrambled in various parts of the state to revive normalcy.
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee went to visit Cyclone hit South 24 Parganas district on Saturday and reviewed of disaster management. News has come that Indian Army’s eastern command will help state machinery to fasten the disaster management.
Lakhs of individuals were rendered homeless as Cyclone Amphan cut a path of destruction through half-a-dozen districts of the state on Wednesday, flattening houses, uprooting thousands of trees and swamping low-lying areas.
According to official sources, around 1.5 crore people of the state are directly affected and quite 10 lakh houses destroyed thanks to the cyclone.
Although electricity and mobile connection was restored in some parts of Kolkata, along North and South 24 Parganas districts, many areas continued to stay darkly as power poles had been blown away and communication lines snapped.
Several roads and houses in Kolkata, Howrah, and North and South 24 Parganas districts remain waterlogged, as hapless citizens came out on the streets against the administration’s “apathy and ineffectiveness.”
People in various parts of Kolkata staged protests and blockades since Friday night demanding immediate resumption of power and water system, three days after Amphan ravaged the state.
Firhad Hakim, chairman of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s board of administrators, assured the citizen that normalcy would be restored during a week, as officialdom were working around the clock to enhance things.
More than 5,000 trees are uprooted. We’ve already cleared several roads, Hakim said. “We are in-tuned with the private power supply provider and had asked them to revive supply as early as possible,” Hakim also added.
In Kakdwip area of South 24 Parganas district, people complained that they weren’t given enough tarpaulin sheets to hide the roofs of homes damaged by the cyclone.
In Hingalganj block of North 24 Parganas, people claimed they were running out of food, as shops within the vicinity were yet to lift shutters within the aftermath of the calamity.
“The entire area is underwater, and that we are out of food for the last three days. We are yet to urge any relief;” said Geeta Mahali, a resident of the Hingalganj.
