Cyclone Arnab: Amit Shah Speaks to Four Chief Ministers

Amit Shah, the Union Minister of Home Affairs and of Cooperation, has spoken to the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, Odisha and Chhattisgarh after Cyclone Arnab struck. He told them the Centre would extend every assistance needed to ease the hardship the storm has brought, and said the Government of India stands with the affected people with firm resolve. The Home Minister shared the message in a post on the X platform.

Rescue and relief under way

According to the Home Minister, teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) are already in the field and are pressing on with rescue and relief work on a war footing. The NDRF is the Centre's specialist force for such emergencies and functions under the Ministry of Home Affairs, while SDRF units are raised and run by the state governments. In a cyclone the two work side by side, clearing fallen trees and blocked roads, moving people out of low-lying habitations, restoring links that the wind has snapped and running relief camps for those who have lost their homes.

Central teams to assess the damage

The Home Minister also said that Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) will be sent shortly to measure the impact of the cyclone and to work out what further help the states and the Union Territory will require. Such a team draws officers from the ministries concerned, tours the affected districts with state officials and puts in a report on the losses to houses, crops, livestock, roads, power lines and public buildings. That assessment is the basis on which the Centre decides the assistance that follows.

Who was contacted

Of the four governments the Home Minister reached out to, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha sit on India's eastern seaboard and take the first blow from storms that form in the sea to their east. Puducherry is a Union Territory with its own legislature and Chief Minister. Chhattisgarh has no coast at all, and the mention of it is a reminder that a cyclone does not stop at the shore: after landfall the system travels inland as a rain-bearing depression and can flood rivers and low ground far from the sea. Disaster relief at the national level is coordinated by the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is why the Home Minister is the Union Minister who speaks to the states when a storm of this size makes landfall.