West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Friday wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting him to declare the devastation caused by cyclone Aila a national calamity and provide immediate relief of Rs 1,000 crore for rehabilitation. He also requested the Prime Minister to send a Central team that could,along with a state team,assess the damage caused by the cyclone. The primary assessment indicates that 51 lakh people have been affected in several districts and loss of human life has already crossed 100. The numbers of fully and partly damaged houses have already reached 2.49 lakh and 2.75 lakh,respectively. The total amount of relief and restoration expenditure to tackle this severe damage may exceed Rs 1,500 crore. a team of Central officials may be sent by you to visit the affected areas along with state Government officials to assess the situation, the Chief Minister wrote in his letter on Thursday. Meanwhile,the death toll in the cyclone has reached 115 in the state with over 5,30,000 people affected. The state has already sanctioned Rs 47 crore to provide succour to the affected people. Though the state had been battered by floods several times in the past few years,this is the first time it has asked the Centre to declare a national calamity. For example,in the 2007-08 floods,348 people died and about 10 lakh houses were damaged. The total loss ran to hundreds of crores of rupees,but the state still chose not to request the Centre to declare it a national calamity. On May 26,a day after the cyclone had pounded the state,the Prime Minister called Bhattacharjee and asked him whether he wanted any Central assistance. The Chief Minister told him that he would do that if the need arose.
