Central team to assess cyclone Aila damage in WB tomorrow

June 9th, 2009 KOLKATA - West Bengal's ruling Left Front chairman Biman Bose said on Tuesday that his party demanded the cyclone Aila, which caused enormous devastation in the state to be declared a national calamity. "The Left Front discussed the issue of cyclone Aila at its meeting and demanded that the disaster be declared a national calamity," Biman Bose told reporters.

June 9th, 2009 KOLKATA - The 11-member central team, which visited West Bengal to take stock of the post Cyclone Aila situation, will submit a detailed report to the central government Wednesday. The team during its three-day visit surveyed a large part of cyclone-ravaged South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas districts in southern West Bengal and Darjeeling hills.

June 8th, 2009 KOLKATA - Lawmakers of the Left Front in West Bengal took to the streets on Monday to collect funds from the willing public to help the victims of cyclone Aila in the state. "The government from the very first day has come forward with all their resources for the flood victims.

June 7th, 2009 KOLKATA - An eleven-member Central team led by Ashok Lavasa, has started its assessment of the damage caused by recent Cyclone Aila in West Bengal. The cyclone and its aftermath claimed 137 lives and affected 67.5 lakh people.

June 6th, 2009 KOLKATA - An eleven-member Central team will arrive here today to assess the damage caused by recent cyclone Aila in West Bengal. During their visit, the officials will visit the areas hit by the cyclone in West Bengal's South and North 24 Parganas districts and the Darjeeling hills.

June 6th, 2009 KOLKATA - An 11-member central team, led by Joint Secretary, Home, Ashok Lavasa, set out for the Cyclone Aila-affected areas in North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas and Darjeeling districts of West Bengal Saturday. The team broke up into small groups and left the city for the devastated zones soon ater preliminary discussions with state Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta and senior officials at the state secretariat.

June 6th, 2009 KOLKATA - An eleven-member Central team led by Ashok Lavasa, arrived here on Saturday to assess the damage caused by recent cyclone Aila in West Bengal. During their visit, the officials visited the areas hit by the cyclone in West Bengal's South and North 24 Parganas districts and the Darjeeling hills.

June 6th, 2009 KOLKATA - The Trinamool Congress will not attend an all-party meeting on Sunday to exchange views and seek suggestions for expediting relief in the cyclone-affected areas. Sudip Bandopadhyay, TMC aspirant in Kolkata (North), said, "It is a desperate attempt to put a government seal on the efforts to get Central funds for the cyclone victims when the state has miserably failed to arrange relief and rehabilitation." The meeting has been called by State Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

June 5th, 2009 KOLKATA - Cyclone Aila that devastated parts of West Bengal last month damaged solar power panels worth Rs.50 crore (Rs.500 million) in the Sundarbans, an official said here Friday. "We've estimated that a huge bulk of solar panel devices worth Rs.50 crore was completely damaged due to cyclone Aila last week in Sundarbans," the managing director of West Bengal Green Energy Development Corporation Ltd, S.P Gon Chowdhury told reporters on the sidelines of a enviromental conference.

June 3rd, 2009 KOLKATA - Expressing satisfaction with the help received from the central government in tackling the aftermath of Cyclone Aila, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacahrjee Wednesday said he will go to Delhi June 19 to hold discussion with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "Yes, I am happy," the chief minister said to a poser from a mediaperson on the central government's role on the issue.

June 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Centre would soon send a team to assess the damage caused by recent cyclone "Aila" in West Bengal, state, it has been assured to the State Government, said West Bengal Finance Minister Ashim Das Gupta on Tuesday. Ashim, after meeting the Union Home Minister P.Chidambaram on Tuesday in the national capital, said that Chidambaram has also promised that he would sympathetically consider all the demands for rehabilitation of the cyclone-affected people.

June 3rd, 2009 KOLKATA - A seven-member team of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), which is spearheading a movement for a separate Gorkhaland, Wednesday met West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and demanded Rs.10 billion for relief and restoration work in areas of Darjeeling hills devastated by landslides triggered by Cyclone Aila. The team of senior GJM leaders, led by party president Bimal Gurung, met Bhattacharjee at the state secretariat and also put forth their demand for holding three-tier Panchayat polls in Darjeeling hills.

May 31st, 2009 KOLKATA - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee Sunday said she would send a report to the central government on the havoc wrecked by cyclone Aila in West Bengal based on inputs from her ministers, district councils and the district administrations. "Five of our (Trinamool Congress) central ministers have toured the affected areas.

May 30th, 2009 KOLKATA - Congress Party supporters protested on Saturday against inefficient disaster management by the State authorities following cyclone Aila's havoc in different parts of the state. Protestors said that the relief work being carried out by the State Government was inadequate and much more needed to be done for affected people's actual help.

May 29th, 2009 KOLKATA - Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Friday said she would submit a report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the post-cyclone Aila situation in West Bengal. "I'll meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tomorrow (Saturday) and will report to him about the post-Aila situation in West Bengal," Banerjee told a Bengali television channel, Star Ananda, over phone from the national capital.