Cyclone Bulbul: High-level meeting held to review preparedness

Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Dr. PK Mishra held a high-level meeting on Thursday with the Chief Secretaries of Odisha, West Bengal and Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, to review their preparedness to deal with the natural calamity. This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised concern over the situation in light of cyclonic storm ‘Bulbul’.

The meeting was attended by the Principal Advisor to the Prime Minister; Secretaries of Home Affairs, and Information and Broadcasting; Member, NDMA, Directors General of India Meteorological Department and NDRF; and senior officers from PMO, Ministries of Home Affairs, Defence. Chief Secretaries and representatives from West Bengal, Odisha, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands joined the meeting through video conference.

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ICG on alert 

During the meeting, Director General of National Disaster Response Force informed that their teams are fully prepared with all the required equipment and are on standby. Indian Coast Guard (ICG) is also on alert and has advised fishermen and merchant ships not to venture in the sea. "Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister advised them to take all possible measures to ensure that loss of human life and property is minimised. He also assured the state governments of all the necessary assistance required in the developing situations," the government statement added. 

According to a statement issued by the government, the meeting reviewed the situation arising due to the movement of Cyclone ‘Bulbul’ in the last few hours. The government statement read, “Director-General of India Meteorological Department (IMD) gave the detailed forecast on cyclone Bulbul; its projected track and accompanying wind speed and rainfall in the sea and along the coasts of Odisha and West Bengal. He informed that coastal Odisha is likely to witness winds speed of 70-80 kmph gusting up to 90 kmph on November 8 accompanied by heavy to very heavy rainfall.”

'Fishing operation should cease immediately' 

The press statement further stated that a similar situation is likely to prevail in coastal West Bengal on November 9. It is advised that fishing operation should cease immediately as the sea conditions will be very rough, the weather forecasting agency said. The press release stated that, "State Chief Secretaries informed of having taken all precautionary measures in the coastal regions and monitoring the situation in the districts on a 24x7 basis. Further, all fishermen have been advised not to venture in the sea and those in the sea have been advised to return back.” 

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(INPUTS FROM ANI)