Cyclone toll doubles to 7,474
Tribune News Service and agencies

NEW DELHI, nOV 10 — The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, today constituted a high-powered task force under the chairmanship of the Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, to direct and coordinate all Central rescue, relief and rehabilitation measures in the cyclone-affected areas of Orissa.

An official release said that the task force, to be headed by the Defence Minister, would include the Central Government secretaries from the ministries concerned, who are already engaged in the rescue, relief and rehabilitation programme in coordination with the state government.

The release said that the Prime Minister had authorised Mr Fernandes to co-opt any other minister to assist the task force. The Defence Minister, who was on an official visit to the north-eastern states, was informed about the Prime Minister’s decision and asked to return immediately to Delhi.

According to reports, the Defence Minister, following the decision to set up the high-powered task force under him, cut short his visit to the North-East and returned to Delhi late in the evening. According to the Defence Minister, the task force had been constituted to assess the extent of damage and loss of human lives. The task force had to submit its report within 15 days.

The Defence Minister had reached Kohima this morning from Calcutta on a five-day visit to Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. He rushed back to Delhi after a meeting with the state Governor, Mr Om Prakash Sharma.

BHUBANESWAR: The official death toll in the October 29 super cyclone in Orissa doubled to 7,474 with a staggering recovery of nearly 4,000 bodies on Wednesday, official sources said here.

The figure, which was officially put at 3,577 past noon, more than doubled after information about retrieval of 3,897 corpses was received, mostly in the worst-hit Jagatsinghpur district, they said.

Jagatsinghpur along accounted for 6,383 deaths, the sources added.

Meanwhile, IAF helicopters, eight MI-8 and two Chetaks, airdropped 1,522 packets of food weighing 21.7 tonnes in eight sorties.

The operation would continue on a reduced scale for another three days, the sources said.

Meanwhile, internet surfers can have access to information about the super cyclone.

The state government has set up a website where district-wise details of damage, relief administered, health measures undertaken and position relating to urban and rural drinking water supply will be available, official sources said.

The website may be accessed at: www.cyclone.utkal.ernet. in, they said.

BHOPAL: A six-member team from Madhya Pradesh, led by Commercial Tax Minister Satya Narayan Sharma and senior Congress leader Vidya Charan Shukla, visited the cyclone-affected regions of Orissa on Wednesday to review the relief and rescue operations.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Digvijay Singh has urged the officials and employees of the state to forsake a one day's salary for the victims of the cyclone.

BANGALORE: The Indian Air Force has mounted a massive operation to supply materials to cyclone ravaged Orissa, Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal A.Y. Tipnis said on Wednesday.

Talking to newspersons here, he said various types of helicopters and aircraft had been deployed for movement of materials. Even the huge MiG 26 was used to shift a generator for cooling the ammonia plant in Paradip.

LUCKNOW: There has been a significant improvement in the cyclone-hit areas of Orissa where the Army has been working relentlessly in the ongoing Operations Sahayata.

The fall in the water level in the flooded areas has helped the Army reach the isolated coastal areas like Biderpur and Dharma.

According to an Army release, it has so far cleared 1621 km of roads and evacuated 21,321 persons to safer places.