The callousness and inefficiency of the West Bengal government machinery was recently exposed by Cyclone Aila.

The state government has now made a decision to upgrade the early warning system for monitoring forecast of natural disasters.

Giving this information in the State Assembly, Minister for Disaster Management and Relief Mortoza Hossain said that the state government has based its decision on the report of IIT, Kharagpur, for upgrading the system, and moved the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) for assistance from World Bank.

Speaking in the assembly, the Minister made it clear that boats would be equipped with high frequency radio sets for monitoring forecast of natural disasters in difficult riverine and coastal areas.

Hossain informed that a team of NDMA had recently visited the Aila-hit villages of both North and South 24 Parganas districts and advised the government to make improvements in its early warning system.

However, the Minister charged the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) for its failure to update the state government about the direction Cyclone Aila was likely to take.

He added that the state government tackled the disaster on a war footing.

It may be recalled here that nearly 138 people died because of the cyclonic storm. Moreover, 1,93,890 people are still staying at 485 relief camps in the state.