Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 28: Clearly demonstrating that the bitterness created between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP during the just-concluded state Assembly elections was still far from being over, the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday deliberately skipped a review meeting with the prime minister Narendra Modi and left the venue within 15 minutes after handing over a memorandum detailing the state’s assessment of damages in the cyclone “Yaas.”
Modi, who undertook an aerial survey of the affected areas in Odisha and West Bengal three days after “Yaas” left behind a trail of destruction in the two states and Jharkhand on Tuesday later announced Rs 1,000 crore immediate central assistance to the three states including Rs 500 crores for Odisha and the remaining Rs 500 crores to be shared by West Bengal and Jharkhand based on the assessment of damages.
Incidentally, in similar cyclone-hit situation, Modi visited Gujarat the very next morning of the cyclone “Tautkae” hit his home state last week and had granted an immediate central assistance of Rs 1,000 crores to the state.
Though Banerjee later claimed that she had “taken permission” of the prime minister in leaving the review meeting because of her other engagements lined up, she was heavily criticized by the governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and the leader of the opposition in the state Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, till recently her trusted lieutenant till he crossed over to the BJP a couple of months before the elections.
“It would have served interests of state and its people for CM and officials to attend review meet by PM. Confrontational stance ill serves interests of State or democracy. Non-participation by CM and officials not in sync with constitutionalism or rule of law,” Dhankhar tweeted. Both Dhankhar and Adhikari were present at the Kalaikunda Air Base in West Medinipur district where the review meeting was to be held but Banerjee left after handing over the memorandum.
Banerjee later told the media persons in Digha that in her memorandum to Modi the state government had sought an assistance of Rs 30,000 crores for the restoration and development of Sunderban Royal Bengal Tiger reserve and Digha sea resorts badly damaged and destroyed by “Yaas.”
Banerjee said she told the Prime Minister “you came far to meet me… so I came to meet you.”
“I told him – ‘You came far to meet me. You wanted to meet me, so I came. My Chief Secretary and I, we are submitting this report to you. I now have to go to Digha as per my schedule. So I am taking your leave’,” Banerjee told reporters. “Now I am here… where we are holding our administrative review meeting. Tomorrow we will conduct an aerial survey (of affected regions),” she added.
That 15-minute meeting together was their first since the April-May Assembly election that Banerjee’s TMC registered a landslide victory despite the BJP mounting a crass campaign led by Modi himself fueled, in part, by the resignation of a large number of MPs, MLAs and ministers from the ruling party.
The last time they were face-to-face was on January 23 – at Kolkata’s Victoria Memorial to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. On that evening a furious Banerjee had walked off-stage in a huff after her speech was repeatedly interrupted by the constant chant of “Jai Shri Ram” from the audience.
Earlier on his arrival to West Bengal from Odisha, the Prime Minister took an aerial surveys of regions affected by Yaas, which caused havoc across South and North 24 Paraganas, Digha, East Medinipur and Nandigram districts of the state.
The Prime Minister had already met Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik; the two met in Bhubaneswar this morning, after which he conducted an aerial survey in that state. Patnaik thanked the Prime Minister for visiting the state and said he had informed him of the “large-scale devastation” caused by Cyclone Yaas.
Modi issued a statement after his meeting with Patnaik in which he noted the effective role of central and states agencies in responding to the challenge posed by Yaas. He advised all agencies to ensure the restoration of normal life in the affected areas as soon as possible and asked that relief material is disbursed to all persons affected by the cyclone.
He also announced ₹ 2 lakh each for the families of each of those who died in cyclone-related incidents. A sum of ₹ 50,000 would be paid to those injured in such incidents.
During the meeting, Odisha government demanded long term solutions to mitigate problems caused by the repeated cyclones and provision of disaster resilient power systems. The state government however sought no immediate funds to tackle the expenditure incurred in disaster management, Odisha Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) P K Jena told reporters after the meeting.
Banerjee said she would undertake her own surveys on Saturday. She has pegged the damage to her state at ₹ 15,000 crore – including the destruction of three lakh houses and 134 embankments – and has already announced a rescue package of ₹ 1,000 crore.
Banerjee conducted an aerial survey of cyclone-hit areas in North 24 Parganas district, officials said. Along with Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay, Banerjee took stock of the situation in Hingalganj, Hasnabad, Sandeshkhali, Pinakha and other areas of the district, they said. “I have seen that most of the areas have been inundated. Houses and large tracts of agricultural fields are under water. A field survey will also be conducted,” Banerjee said.