The southern districts of West Bengal, including Kolkata, woke up to light rain and an overcast sky on Monday as cyclone 'Sitrang' moved towards north Bay of Bengal, raising the likelihood of a downpour during the day and threatening to dampen Diwali festivities.
The survivors and the bodies were found near Kendo island of the Sunderbans on Tuesday.
'Based on the request from the government of West Bengal, five columns were deployed today in the state to assist the civil administration in the aftermath of Cyclone Amphan. They will be providing assistance in road clearance work tomorrow as well,' the statement from Indian Army read.
While man and a woman were reported killed when trees came crashing down on them in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, a 13-year-old girl died in a similar incident in adjoining Howrah. No casualties have been reported from Odisha yet.
Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, on his part, gave assurances that normalcy would be restored in a week, as government officials were working round the clock to improve the situation.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday alleged that 'Bhatija (nephew) and company' had swindled central funds sent for Amphan relief and said that probe will be ordered into it and culprits will be booked after the Bharatiya Janata Party comes to power in West Bengal.
Royal Bengal tigress at Sunderbans caught by the forest officials.
Doctors fear that the number of people suffering from water borne diseases and children falling prey to measles and other communicable diseases would increase once stagnant sea water recedes from the villages of the Sunderbans.
The power infrastructure and the farm sector have also suffered a considerable damage, Chief Secretary A K Tripathy said. However officials said the telecom infrastructure is largely intact.
Migrant labourers in South 24 Parganas who lost their jobs due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown are left with nothing due to the monstrous cyclone now.
You'd be naive to go into this one looking for top grade acting or direction, says Paloma Sharma.
Within hours of assuming office, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday initiated a major reshuffle in the police hierarchy, transferring 29 top-level police officers, mostly those who were shifted by the election commission prior to the polls.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday unveiled its manifesto for the West Bengal elections, promising to build a 'Sonar Bangla' by providing employment, strengthening social security schemes and vowing to clear the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act in the first cabinet meeting of the new government.
Hundreds of people complained that they had to go without food and sleep in the aftermath of cyclone, which has wreaked havoc in Bengal, as their homes lay inundated amid heavy showers that continued to pummel several parts of the state.
The TMC, in total, bagged 75.02 per cent of the votes cast, whereas the BJP got some 14.48 per cent votes, in the four assembly segments.
A 20-member delegation of leading industrialists, including Harsh Neotia, Sanjay Budhia, Sanjay Agarwal and Utsav Parekh, are also accompanying her on the trip.
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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday submitted a report to Prime Minister Naredra Modi on the damages caused by cyclone 'Yaas' in the state, and sought a Rs 20,000-crore package for redevelopment of the worst-affected areas.
Delhi, Sunderbans and the Western Ghats are among the hotspots of illegal trade of tigers, their parts and products, says a new global report.
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'For around five hours the storm, reportedly the strongest one ever recorded in the Bay of Bengal, that mother of many a deathly vortex, shook Kolkata like a toddler playing with a rattling toy,' observes Debashish Chatterjee.
Life in the metros can be more taxing than you can imagine and nothing is more welcome than a weekend getaway. Aditi Bose lists out her favourite places around Kolkata.
The state government is releasing Rs 6,250 crore for the cyclone relief operations. Along with this, Rs 20,000 and Rs 28,000 will be given as wage to workers of the 100-day job programme.
Blaming a section of the media for joining the opposition chorus over death of babies in state-run hospitals, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday dubbed it as 'rumour' since the child mortality rate has dropped in the state.
The special dispensation would lead to redevelopment of 19,000 old and dilapidated buildings and rehabilitation of slums situated in the coastal area in Greater Mumbai.
West Bengal Sunderbans Development Minister Kanti Ganguly said 200 pilgrims from Uttar Pradesh were returning to Kakdwip on four motorised boats after offering pujas at Kapil Muni temple at Sagar Islands on the confluence of the Bay of Bengal and Hooghly river when one of the vessels sank.
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Moved by the plight of those affected by the natural calamity, Indian archer Rahul Banerjee immersed himself in relief work for victims of cyclone Amphan.
The severe cyclonic storm, which brought in its wake heavy rain coupled with gale wind till early Sunday, uprooted hundreds of trees and snapped cables in Kolkata and in the coastal districts of North and South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore, bring life to a near-halt.
Dilip hails from Sunderbans. When Aila struck the area in the summer of 2009, he and his family lost everything and turned paupers overnight.
Deepika studied till Class V at the village school itself.
Dubbed as the largest farmers' congregation in Delhi, around 35,000 farmers, from across India, converged at the Parliament Street police station Thursday after their march was stopped by the administration.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was on Sunday gheraoed twice by relief seekers in the state's South 24 Parganas, the district worst-hit by cyclone Aila, even as the government prepared a memorandum seeking assistance of Rs 1,000 for submission to the Centre.The chief minister had gone to Gosaba in the Sunderbans to see the extent of the disaster and distribution of relief materials.
In a repeat of Sunday's mob fury during West Bengal Chief Minister's visit to cyclone-hit Gosaba, hundreds of cyclone victims on Tuesday heckled and jeered at Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, as he came out of a relief camp in Hingalganj in North 24-Parganas district. "You are an inefficient chief minister. You deserve a garland of shoes. What have you done for the development of the Sunderbans in the last five years," the hungry victims shouted at Bhattacharjee.
A day after Cyclone Yaas tore through coastal Odisha and Bengal to cause havoc as far as Jharkhand, tornadoes, torrential rains, bridge collapses and swelling rivers continued to plague eastern India as people tried to pick up their lives amid the debris of swept away mud homes and swamped farmlands.
Three TMC leaders Amit Mitra, Bratya Basu and Rathin Ghosh were sworn-in virtually. Mitra is unwell and both Basu and Ghosh are recuperating from COVID-19.
Kaushik Roy talks about his first feature film, Apna Asmaan.
He claims that his target is to tour a total of 191 countries. So far he has covered over 48,000 kilometers.
