Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said her government had taken up an initiative to prepare masterplans for the Sunderbans and Digha to minimise the damage the two areas faced on a regular basis because of natural calamities like cyclones.

“We have set up a committee comprising 24 members to find out ways to save the Sunderbans and Digha. The masterplans would give us a direction on which we can work to save the areas from natural disasters they face regularly,” Mamata said at Nabanna on Thursday.

The chief minister said the state government had taken three plans — short-term, mid-term and long-term — to help people of these two areas after Cyclone Yaas had hit them in May.

“We have given relief to the affected, we have collected compensation claims through Duare Tran programme and we have started sending compensation to the bank accounts of the affected,” she said.

Mamata said the state government had already spent Rs 364.3 crore to give compensation to 1.91 lakh people in the affected areas. In addition to this, the state government has spent another Rs 230 crore to give compensation to the affected farmers across the state.

Sources said the state government would send some more compensation to the affected and would develop flood shelters in the coastal districts as soon as the state government got some funds from the Centre.

Mamata also inaugurated a programme virtually at Digha where 54 vendors were given trolleys as their kiosks had been damaged during Yaas.

Moreover, the state government has repaired 114 damaged stalls located near the beach in Digha. These stalls had been damaged severely in Yaas.