Cyclone 'Bulbul' makes landfall, two deaths reported
Kolkata/Bhubaneswar: Severe cyclonic storm 'Bulbul' made landfall Saturday midnight between Sagar Islands of West Bengal and Khepupara in Bangladesh, hurtling northeastwards into the neighbouring country over the Sunderban delta, with two deaths reported in its wake.
The system, which made landfall as a severe cyclonic storm with a maximum sustained speed of 110 to 120 kilometres per hour with gusts up to 135 kmph, is set to weaken gradually as it moves into Bangladesh through the Sunderban delta, Regional MeT director G K Das said in Kolkata.
Gale wind with speed of 110 to 120 kmph with gusts up to 135 kmph prevailed along and off the coastal and adjoining districts of West and East Midnapore, South and North 24 Parganas as the eye of the storm made landfall around midnight.
Squally wind with speed of 50 to 60 kmph with gusts up to 70 kmph was likely to prevail over Kolkata during the night, the MeT office said.
One death each has been reported from West Bengal and Odisha due to heavy rain triggered by the storm. Rain lashed coastal West Bengal throughout Saturday, uprooting trees and leading to the death of a man in Kolkata.
The man was killed at a club in upmarket Ballygunge Place area when a tree was uprooted and fell on him during the squally weather. Continuous downpour since the early hours of Saturday led to waterlogging of some streets and lowlying areas of Kolkata. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said during the day that she was monitoring the situation and the administration had taken all measures to tackle any contingency.
She appealed to citizens to maintain calm and not to panic.
In Odisha, one person died due to a reported rain-related wall collapse at Kendrapara district and the matter was being enquired, special relief commissioner, Odisha, P K Jena said.
Odisha chief secretary Asit Tripathy said the state government was keeping a close watch on the situation and necessary action was being taken to deal with it.
In Delhi, the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), the country's apex body to handle any emergency, on Saturday reviewed the preparedness to deal with the very severe cyclone 'Bulbul' over the Bay of Bengal.
The NCMC meeting was headed by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba.
"Due to very severe cyclone 'Bulbul', operations at Kolkata airport has been suspended from 6.00 pm on November 9 to 6.00 am of November 10," a home ministry official said in the national capital.
"The Army, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard are on alert," an MHA official said. Three Navy ships at Visakhapatnam are on standby with relief material embarked for immediate deployment to the most affected areas to undertake Humanitarian Aid Distress Relief (HADR) operation, a Defence official said.
Additionally, ten diving and medical teams were also kept ready by the Navy for augmenting rescue and relief efforts in Odisha and West Bengal, the official said.
Navy aircraft were kept ready at Naval Air station, INS Dega to undertake aerial survey of the most affected areas, casualty evacuation and airdrop of relief material as required by the state administration, the official added.
Naval Officers-in-Charge, West Bengal and Odisha are in constant liaison with respective state administrations for rendering assistance as required, he added.
A Ministry of Home official said in New Delhi that it is monitoring the situation and that the West Bengal administration has evacuated 59,000 people from coastal areas and other places which are likely to be affected. The MHA official said that 17 NDRF teams were deployed in West Bengal, while six of their teams were active in Odisha for dealing with contingencies.
In Odisha, around 4,000 people were evacuated from vulnerable and low-lying areas in some coastal regions of the state and shifted to 47 cyclone shelters, officials said.
Personnel of the Indian Coast Guard were in readiness to tackle any eventuality in the wake of cyclonic storm 'Bulbul'.
Ships have been moved to safer locations at Paradip, Dhamra and Sagar Island coasts, Inspector General of Coast Guard, Rajan Bargotra, told PTI.
Fishermen were advised not to venture into the rough seas in Odisha and West Bengal coastal regions in view of the cyclonic storm, said Bargotra, who is the Commander Coast Guard Region (North East).
Deputy Inspector General S R Dash, who is Commander of Coast Guard, West Bengal, said three disaster management teams have been stationed at Haldia and two at Fraserganj in South 24 Parganas district for timely action.
"We are trying to achieve zero casaulty," Dash said.
Chief Minister Banerjee, who was monitoring the situation at state administrative headquarter Nabanna, told reporters on Saturday night that Central Disaster Management teams and state disaster management teams were working round the clock in affected areas.
She said Contai, Ramnagar and Khejuri were among the most affected areas in the storm. The chief minister said that 318 relief camps have been set up in the cyclone-hit areas with 1,12,365 people lodged in the camps.
Banerjee said in total 1.64.315 lakh people have been hit by the cyclone. She said the West Bengal government would provide financial help to the cyclone affected people.
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Nitish likely to resign as Bihar CM after last meeting of cabinet on April 14
Patna (PTI): Bihar inched towards a political transition on Sunday with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar convening a meeting of his cabinet on April 14, following which the JD(U) president is likely to relinquish the post to make way for a BJP-led government.
According to a notification issued by the cabinet secretariat department, the meeting will take place at 11 am, after which the longest-serving CM of the state, who got elected to the Rajya Sabha last week, was expected to submit his resignation to Governor Syed Ata Hasnain.
Earlier, Kumar's close aide and JD(U) national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha had told reporters that the process of formation of a new government was likely to "roll out after April 13".
Meanwhile, the BJP, which has been approaching the prospect of having its first- ever chief minister in the state with considerable restraint, got down to business and named Shivraj Singh Chouhan as a "central observer", who would oversee the change of guard.
A statement issued by the BJP headquarters in Delhi said the parliamentary board has appointed Chouhan, a Union minister and a multiple-term former CM of Madhya Pradesh, as “central observer for electing the leader of legislature party in Bihar”.
Senior JD(U) leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, had said here earlier in the day "the new chief minister will be elected by the NDA, upon the recommendation of the BJP, which has a big role to play".
Speculations are doing the rounds that Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, who holds the crucial Home portfolio in the outgoing government, is the frontrunner among contenders for the top job.
BJP leaders in the state, who have been making frantic visits to Delhi in the recent past, are keeping their cards close to the chest.
"Who will be the next CM is a decision to be taken by our central leadership," minister Dilip Jaiswal, who is a former state BJP president, had said a day ago, adding, "I am not at all in the race".
Other than Choudhary, who had joined the BJP less than a decade ago, those whose names are doing the rounds include Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai and state ministers Lakhendra Paswan and Shreyasi Singh.
According to BJP sources, all these leaders fit the bill in different ways. Choudhary is a ‘Koeri’, and his elevation could ensure that the ‘Luv Kush’ (Kurmi Koeri) equation nurtured by Kumar during his 20-year-rule remained intact in favour of the NDA, after the JD(U) supremo's departure.
Rai is a Yadav and brings the promise of support of the largest caste group in Bihar, which has been with Lalu Prasad's RJD, the BJP's principal rival in the state, for decades.
Paswan is a Dalit and his elevation could help the BJP transcend its "pro-upper caste" image, which brings its own disadvantages in the Hindi heartland, where the Mandal agitation of the 1990s has cast a long shadow, the sources said.
Singh, in her 30s, is an upper caste Rajput, but her elevation could be projected as the party giving preference to young blood.
Moreover, the party has also been trying to present itself as a champion of gender equality, by pushing through the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’ that ensures 33 per cent reservation to women in both Houses of Parliament.
However, the BJP sources admitted that there was a strong possibility of the central leadership springing a "surprise", citing examples of many states ruled by the party, where less fancied leaders have landed the top job in the recent past.
Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, a Trinamool Congress MP who spent nearly three decades in the BJP, had said, while commenting on the political situation in Bihar that "we have plenty of deserving people here but we must be beware of a baba who may arrive with a parchi".
The allusion was to Rajasthan, where Bhajan Lal Sharma was named the chief minister two years ago at a legislature party meeting, where Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was seen on camera taking out a piece of paper with the name of the first-term MLA written on it.
