Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said schools in nine districts, including Calcutta, would remain closed from October 23 to 26 as a precautionary measure to ensure the safety of schoolchildren because of the possibility of Cyclone Dana making landfall between Odisha and Sagar Island in Bengal on the night of October 24.

“We have decided to keep schools in coastal districts and surrounding districts, including Calcutta, closed between October 23 and 26. As the depression formed over the Bay of Bengal could become a severe cyclone and make landfall between Odisha and Sagar Island on October 24 night, we don’t want to take a chance. Moreover, sometimes, people who are evacuated from low-lying areas are also kept in schools,” said the chief minister at Nabanna on Tuesday.

According to a notification issued by the state school education department, all state-aided schools in South 24-Parganas and North 24-Parganas, East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Jhargram, Bankura, Hooghly, Howrah and Calcutta will be closed until October 26. As October 27 is Sunday, the schools will effectively be closed from October 23 to 27.

Mamata also said integrated child development service centres would be closed till October 26 since children and would-be-mothers visited those facilities. She announced that ferry services in the coastal districts and the surrounding areas would be suspended till the situation became normal after the landfall of the cyclone.

The government decided to send one senior IAS officer each to eight of the districts which are likely be hit by the cyclone to monitor evacuation and rescue operations.

“The district authorities will start evacuating people living in the low-lying areas of the coastal districts on Wednesday. We have kept cyclone shelters ready in these areas to accommodate evacuated people. We understand that it is difficult for the people to move to cyclone shelters leaving their homes behind, but they must understand life is most important,” said the chief minister.

Sources in the disaster management department said it was expected nearly four lakh people would have to be evacuated from the low-lying areas of the coastal districts.

“During cyclone Yaas, we had evacuated nearly four lakh people from three coastal districts — South 24-Parganas, North 24-Parganas and East Midnapore. Yaas had made landfall in Odisha but left a severe impact in Bengal in May 2021. However, no death was reported because of the successful evacuation of people from the low-lying areas. The same exercise would be undertaken this time,” said a senior official of the disaster management department.

Another official said the Bengal government had learned a lesson from Cyclone Amphan that wreaked havoc on the state in May 2020.

“After Amphan, we learned that evacuation of people to safe places was crucial to battle a cyclone. As we have more than 150 cyclone shelters spread in these
three coastal districts, we successfully managed to keep many people there. Additionally, we use several other government buildings, including schools, to keep people safe during the cyclone,” said another official.

The government also started focusing on the post-landfall scenario. The chief secretary held a series of meetings with representatives of district administrations, NDRF, Coast Guard and the Army to ensure that rescue operations were carried out properly in case the cyclone left a heavy impact.

“The relief material and dry food have been stored in the districts where the cyclone could leave an impact. If required, NDRF teams, along with the SDRF teams, would be deployed in adequate numbers in the affected areas,” said a bureaucrat.

Fishermen

Mamata Banerjee said 84 fishermen from Bengal had been taken to jails in Bangladesh after five trawlers had entered the neighbouring country’s boundary.

“A few days ago, two trawlers with 36 people went missing. We tracked the trawlers and found them in Bangladesh. We came to know that they were taken to jails.
After that, three more trawlers made the same mistake and 48 fishermen were taken to jails,” she said at Nabanna on Tuesday.

The chief minister said her government took up the issue with the authorities concerned so that those people could be brought back to the state. Mamata said a Bangladeshi boat capsised in the maritime boundary of India or Bengal.

“The Coast Guard had released them as they had proper documents. Our fishermen also had valid documents like Aadhaar,” said the chief minister.

“I hope the relation between the two countries will improve,” Mamata said