BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday said the Government would put the best foot forward to stick to its stated "zero casualty" policy as cyclonic storm Amphan formed over the sea and moves towards north Bay of Bengal.
About seven lakh people in the coastline villages of the State are likely to be affected by the storm which is headed towards north Odisha and West Bengal coast where it could make landfall between May 18 and 20.
The projected course of the weather system, if it sticks to its path, will mean the storm may skirt Odisha but that too would mean heavy rains and strong wind in its trail.
Not leaving anything to chance, the disaster-ready Odisha Government has asked the Collectors to keep evacuation plan ready to shift the 7 lakh people to safer places if the situation demanded. When cyclone Fani hit the State last year in May, the State had evacuated over 14 lakh people to safety.
"Collectors may keep evacuation plan in readiness, in case of need to shift people from vulnerable low lying areas and living in thatched houses. This would be fine tuned after getting further updates from the India Meteorological Department (IMD)," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said while reviewing the preparedness to tackle the cyclone.
"As always saving lives is our priority. We should put our best efforts to save every precious human life," Naveen said.
Amphan, lying 1040 km south of Paradip and 1200 km south-south west of Digha is expected to turn into a severe cyclonic storm in next 24 hours and then into a very severe cyclonic storm by May 18.
From its current north-northwest movement, it would recurve to a north-northeast direction and go towards north Odisha, West Bengal and Bangladesh coast.
In the midst of a sharp rise in coronavirus positive cases, the Odisha Government has asked engineering departments to make prior arrangements for quick restoration of road communication to be disrupted during the cyclone. The Energy department has been asked to make necessary arrangements for quick restoration of power supply.
Earlier in the day, Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba reviewed preparedness of the states in a meeting with Odisha chief secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy who apprised him that around 403 cyclone shelters have been identified to be affected by the cyclone, out of which 105 are being used as temporary medical centres (TMCs) for people quarantined for Covid-19.
As a contingency measure, alternative buildings have also been identified for use as cyclone shelters, in case there is a need for more evacuation.
All 12 coastal districts have been alerted to meet any eventuality in case of a change of track by the cyclone. Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) PK Jena said that 20 teams of Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF), 17 teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and 335 units of fire and disaster management are in readiness.
Four NDRF teams have moved to Kendrapara, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur and Balasore districts, 11 ODRAF units are pre-positioned in eight coastal and nearby districts. Further deployment is being planned, he said.
Telecom service providers including BSNL, Vodafone, Idea, Airtel and central telecom authority have assured of alternate power supply. Besides, the companies have agreed to store sufficient stock of diesel to run the transceiver stations.