Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday instructed disaster management agencies to evacuate those involved in off-shore activities while chairing a high-level meeting to review the preparedness of states and central government agencies to deal with the situation arising out of cyclone Yaas.
The Prime Minister called for close coordination of central agents with states to ensure the safe evacuation of people from high-risk areas, and stressed the need to ensure that time duration of outages of power supply and communication network are minimum and restored swiftly, a PMO statement said.
He also asked officials to ensure proper coordination and planning with state governments to ensure that no disruption is caused to COVID-19 treatment and vaccination in hospitals.
Modi called for involving various stakeholders like coastal communities and industries and directly reaching out to them and sensitising them, the PMO said.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said that the cyclone is expected to cross West Bengal and north Odisha coasts by May 26 evening with the wind speed ranging 155-165 kmph and gusting to 185 kmph.
It is likely to cause heavy rainfall and storm in the coastal districts of West Bengal and north Odisha.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has already released the first installment of SDRF in advance to all states, and the National Disaster Response Force has pre-positioned 46 teams that are equipped with boats, tree-cutters, telecom equipment in five states and UT. In addition, 13 teams are being airlifted on Sunday for deployment and 10 teams have been kept on standby, the PMO noted.
