Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired a meeting via video conference today with the Chief Ministers of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and the Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands to review preparations in view of Cyclone Yaas. He directed senior officers to work in close co-ordination with states to ensure safe evacuation of people from high-risk areas. He also instructed all concerned departments to ensure timely evacuation of those involved in off-shore activities.

 
 Mr. Shah stressed on the need to ensure that time duration of outages of power supply and communication network are minimum and are restored swiftly. Our Correspondent reports that Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is keeping a close watch and is in touch with the State Governments and UTs and the Central Agencies concerned to tackle the situation arising out of Cyclone Yaas.

 
Mr. Shah also asked officials to ensure proper co-ordination and planning with state governments to ensure no disruptions in Covid treatment and vaccination in hospitals. He also directed State governments to take extra caution towards the Oxygen Plants situated in these States supplying medical Oxygen to several parts in the country. 

 
MHA has already released the first installment of the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) in advance to all States. National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has committed 99 teams which are equipped with boats, tree-cutters, telecom equipments and other equipments to handle the situation in 5 States & UTs.