Centre should provide financial aid to WB, Odisha: Manoj Jha on Cyclone Amphan

Terming the devastation caused by cyclone Amphan in West Bengal and Odisha as massive, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha said Centre should provide financial aid to the affected states and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to announce cyclone Amphan as a national catastrophe and to take up all the disaster management steps to procure the existing lives.

"If the states are announcing a financial relief package for the cyclone impacted livelihood, Centre should contribute a major portion to it," RJD leader said.

He also requested PM Narendra Modi to announce cyclone Amphan as a national catastrophe and to take up all the disaster management steps to procure the existing lives.

"I would request PM Modi and his team to announce cyclone Amphan as a national disaster, following which, required measures can be taken to provide comfort to the existing lives in the affected states," he added.

"Although we can't bring back lives from the dead but can support the existing ones," he said.

Referring to the tweets by Prime Minister, he said, "Though his tweets were expected a little earlier, now after reading them, I expect it to be done as it has been said."

In the midst of a pandemic, another disaster came in knocking in West Bengal and Odisha. Such incidences call for a long term planning for the known and unknown disasters. To this, Jha expressed his concern and suggested, "In the spirit of Co-operative federalism, PM needs to think way ahead of time."

( With inputs from ANI )