West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said the cyclone’s impact on the state was worse than that of the coronavirus pandemic and claimed the damages would be around Rs 1 lakh crore.
“Area after area has been devastated communications are disrupted.” NDTV quoted Mamata as saying.
At least 12 killed in West Bengal due to severe cyclonic storm on Wednesday.
“Though five lakh people have been evacuated, state authorities had not entirely anticipated the ferocity of the cyclone,” she added.
Bengal CM spent the entire day at a control room in Kolkata.
“On one hand we are fighting with COVID-19, on the other hand lakhs of migrants are coming back,” she said. “Over all this now the cyclone. I think that this is a disaster bigger than COVID-19. I would request [the Centre] please forget politics and cooperate with us and save the people,” she said.
The mobile and internet services were down as the cyclone had damaged several communication towers.
Streets and homes in low lying areas of Kolkata were swamped with rainwater.
