PM Modi applies Rs 1,500-crore balm to cyclone-hit Bengal, Odisha

Kolkata/ Bhubaneswar : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday announced an interim assistance of Rs 1,500 crore for West Bengal and Odisha after reviewing the situation caused by cyclone 'Amphan' that claimed 80 lives, lay waste to standing crops in thousands of hectares, and ruined infrastructure.

Modi reviewed the situation in West Bengal and Odisha with chief ministers Mamata Banerjee and Naveen Patnaik, two days after the cyclone, the worst in years, devastated their states.

The prime minister announced an interim assistance of Rs 1,000 crore for West Bengal, already battling a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths, besides an influx of migrant labourers, after a review meeting with Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and the state's top officials.

Banerjee, however, insisted that the state had sufferred losses of over Rs 1 lakh crore for which it needed to be compensated.

The prime minister undertook an aerial survey of the vast swamp that many districts have turned into, after the cyclone dumped copious rain on Wednesday and the accompanying winds flattened homes, bludgeoned massive trees to the ground like matchsticks, and plunged city after city into darkness.

After undertaking an aerial survey of the affected areas with Dhankhar and Banerjee, and holding a review meeting with them and top officials, Modi announced an interim relief of Rs 1,000 crore for the state where 80 people have so far lost their lives in the carnage wrought by the cyclone.

Banerjee, however, insisted that the damage caused by the cyclone was "much more than a national disaster" and said the state had suffered losses of no less then Rs 1 lakh crore.