Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday held a meeting to take stock of the situation and preparedness to deal with the Cyclone ‘Nisarga’ which is expected to hit the coastal regions of Maharashtra and Gujarat on June 3.
Shah held the review meeting with senior officials of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and Indian Coast Guard.
Minister of State (Home Affairs) Nityanand Rai was also present in the meeting.
Later, Home Minister held a Video Conference meeting with Chief Ministers of Gujarat and Maharashtra, Vijay Rupani and Uddhav Thackeray and Administrator of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu Praful Patel.
He assured them all Central help in view of the impending Cyclone and asked them to spell out in details the requirements and resources needed to deal with the situation.
Earlier in the day, IMD had sounded a ‘Yellow’ warning for north Maharashtra and south Gujarat coast.
The depression in the Arabian Sea is slated to further intensify into a cyclonic storm ‘Nisarga’ and cross north Maharashtra and Gujarat coasts between Harihareshwar in Raigard district and Daman on June 3, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had said.
“The depression in the south-west Arabian Sea is likely to concentrate into a deep depression in next 12 hours and in next 24 hours it is going to become a cyclone,” said Anand Kumar Sharma, Deputy Director-General of IMD.
“Till June 2 it will move in northerly direction then it will move towards northeast direction & cross Harihareshwar & Daman coast on the evening of June 3,” he had added.
Meanwhile, NDRF has already deployed 13 teams in Gujarat including 2 kept as reserve and 16 in Maharashtra including 7 teams as reserve, while one team each was deployed for Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
NDRF is aiding the State Governments for evacuation of people from low lying coastal areas.