Back-to-back tours: CM to take stock of N Bengal damages, head to Goa later

MP | 22 Oct 2021 | KOLKATA/DARJEELING: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will visit North Bengal on Sunday to take stock of the devastation caused in the region by the incessant downpour. After her four-day trip to North Bengal, Banerjee will fly to Goa, where her party is trying to strengthen its organisation with an eye on the 2022 state Assembly polls there. 

Meanwhile, heavy rains wreaked havoc in North Bengal over the past few days. Though the weather improved considerably on Thursday, Sikkim remained cut-off owing to a major landslide at Birikdanra on National Highway 10. More than 70 per cent of the road had been washed away. Authorities said it would take a few days to restore the National Highway. Sikkim-bound vehicles are being diverted to other routes. 

The road restoration work has begun under the PWD National Highway Division on Thursday at Birikdanra. It may take four to five days to restore a single lane for goods vehicles. In such a scenario, separate routes have been earmarked for goods vehicles to Sikkim. 

Good vehicles from Sikkim to Siliguri will take the Rungpo-Melli-Chitrey-Kalimpong-Algarah-Lava-Gorubathan-Damdim-Coronation bridge – Sevok-Siliguri route. 

Earlier, there were landslides at several places in the Hills, disrupting connection with the plains. Two children were also washed away in the river Torsa. A 29-year-old home guard personnel was buried under the debris after a major landslide. If everything remains as planned, the Chief Minister will leave for her tour on October 24. She will hold an administrative review meeting in Kurseong on October 26 and another review meeting at Uttar Kanya on October 27. 

If the weather is suitable, Banerjee will visit various rain-affected areas in North Bengal. Sources said the schedule for her visit to the affected areas would be prepared later. Banerjee had earlier visited each and every area and also took aerial surveys of the places in South Bengal districts, including Howrah, Hooghly, East and West Midnapore when major parts of the districts went under water due to heavy rainfall. 

Giving equal importance to North Bengal, Banerjee is now going to take stock of the situation by visiting the affected places personally in Darjeeling and its adjoining areas. 

Banerjee's North Bengal tour is scheduled to be completed on October 28. According to sources, she will be flying directly to Goa from North Bengal. 

The Trinamool Congress chairperson is scheduled to hold a series of political programmes in Goa and is supposed to return to Kolkata on November 1. 

Meanwhile, five tourists have died in Kapkot in Uttarakhand's Kumaon, officials said on Thursday as the death toll in the state battered by the recent rains rose to 65. 

The confirmation about the death of tourists stranded near Kapkot's Sunderdhunga glacier in Bageshwar district came on a day when Union Home minister Amit Shah conducted an aerial survey of the rain damage, pegged by the state government at Rs 7,000 crore. 

Earlier, the official count of the dead was 60. 

Apart from the five dead, one tourist was missing, officials said. 

Four were rescued. 

About 65 tourists had been trapped on the higher reaches of Bageshwar and rescue teams were at work to bring those still remaining there to safety, officials said. 

Amit Shah told reporters at the Jollygrant airport here that the alertness of the Central and state government agencies helped contain the damage in Uttarakhand. 

Relief and rescue operations continued in the worst-hit Kumaon region amid efforts to restore connectivity and evacuate people from vulnerable areas. 

Damaged power lines should be repaired at the earliest and the good coordination between central and state agencies, which was evident during the spell of heavy rains in the state, should be kept up, he said. He also sought the state government's suggestions on better disaster management. 

Shah said 3,500 people were rescued and 16,000 others were evacuated to safe locations. Seventeen teams of the National Disaster Response Force, seven teams of the State Disaster Response Force, 15 teams of the Provincial Armed Constabulary and 5,000 police personnel are engaged in the relief and rescue operations in the state. 

Due to the heavy downpour and the flooding of the Naini lake, the area around Dhobi Ghat in Nainital is experiencing major landslides, District Magistrate Dhiraj Singh Garbiyal said. Around 100 families living there have been shifted, he added. 

Meanwhile, the Chardham Yatra, which was temporarily halted on October 18 due to the heavy rain alert issued by the meteorological department, resumed with pilgrims leaving for Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri from Rishikesh Chardham bus terminal and Haridwar bus stand. 

Heli services for Kedarnath have also resumed. The weather at the Himalayan temples is chilly but there is no rain. 

On the other hand, after a brief lull, heavy rainfall, accompanied by thunderstorms and lightning, lashed several parts of Kerala on Thursday as the weathermen issued an Orange Alert for eight districts of the state indicating very heavy showers. 

http://www.millenniumpost.in/kolkata/back-to-back-tours-cm-to-take-stock-of-n-bengal-damages-head-to-goa-later-456616