Central team to visit West Bengal to assess cyclone damage 

NEW DELHI: A seven-member Central team will visit West Bengal to assess the damage caused by Cyclone Yaas, officials said on Sunday. 

The “very severe cyclonic storm” made landfall in Odisha on May 26 and wrought destruction in several parts of the state as well as in parts of the neighbouring West Bengal. The Central team will be led by a joint secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs. 

The inter-ministerial team will take stock of the situation in South 24 Parganas district upon its arrival on Sunday. It will then travel to the East Midnapore district on Monday. 

During the three-day trip, the team is likely to meet officials from the state’s Finance Department, sources said.

The development comes a week after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the state chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay skipped a cyclone review meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leading to a war of words between the Centre and the state government. 

The Centre even issued a show-cause notice to Bandyopadhyay for skipping the meeting.

Last month, a Central team had visited the state to review post-election violence in the state, days after Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress won the Assembly election with a thumping majority. 

​On May 31 itself, the MHA slapped a show-cause notice on Bandyopadhyay under a stringent provision of the Disaster Management Act that entails imprisonment for up to two years for abstaining from the meeting presided by the prime minister.