Yet to get financial help from Centre for cyclone 'Bulbul' despite PM's assurance: Mamata

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that the state is yet to receive a single penny as financial help from the Centre for cyclone 'Bulbul'-affected areas despite PM Narendra Modi's assurance. Banerjee was speaking in the state Assembly during Question Hour.

She was replying on the extent of devastation caused by cyclone 'Bulbul' in three coastal districts of West Bengal. "We have not received a single paise till today from the central government despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi's tweet about helping the state the next day after cyclone 'Bulbul' made a landfall. The home minister had also tweeted," Banerjee said.

An estimate of Rs 23,000 crore was given to a central team which visited the three districts to review the extent of loss, but no fund had been received from the Centre.

The CM said, over 14 lakh hectare of agricultural land was destroyed in the cyclone, and as many as 15 people had lost their lives in the natural calamity. An amount of Rs 1,200 crore was released from the state finance department to help the farmers.

Banerjee said that the state would also release Rs 5,000 each for those betel leaf farmers who faced huge loss in the devastation.