Mamata cuts short London trip amid heavy rains, storm in WB

West Bengal chief minister has decided to cut short her London trip by a day and will come back tomorrow, in the wake of forecast of heavy rains and storm in West Bengal.

The principal secretary, chief secretary, mayor of Kolkata Sovon Chaterjee, MP Derek O’Brien and Sugata Bose will return with the Chief Minister. Rest of the delegation, which include several city industrialists, parliamentarians and bureaucrats, will return as per schedule on July 31. Banerjee left for London on July 26 and was scheduled to return on July 31.

A dust storm yesterday in rural areas of Howrah district, destroyed houses rendering around 200 people homeless, uprooting trees and electricity poles. There are forecast of storm and heavy rains today and day after. There is also apprehension about possibility of  floods in some districts.

“Mamata Banerjee has decided to leave for Kolkata a day early because of the impending cyclone in Bengal. She has spoken to the Home Secretary of the State and has asked the administration to take all precautions,” a statement released on TMC's twitter handle said.

Incidentally, there has been some changes in the scheduled events in the wake of sudden demise of former President APJ Abdul Kalam. A cultural event at the Natural History Museum last evening where members from Banerjee's cultural clan were expected to participate got cancelled.

According to government officials, West Bengal has signed 22 MOUs in sectors including health, education and urban development during the visit.