Jaipur, Jun 19 (IANS): Bharatiya Janata Party state president C.P. Joshi on Monday criticised the Gehlot government for not taking proper steps to mitigate the damage caused by Cyclone Biparjoy.

Joshi said that the government already had all the required information about the danger of the cyclone yet it failed to take steps for disaster management.

"Despite this, the storm caused heavy damage in 5 districts of South-West Rajasthan and other places. Based on the information from newspapers, 7 people have died, hundreds of people are trapped in water, many houses have been destroyed, many people are rendered homeless, and many villages are submerged.

"People have no food and drink. There is scarcity of commodities, cattle have died and patients admitted in the hospital are facing problems due to water-logging," Joshi said.

He said that Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot should learn from the Gujarat government's disaster management, where there was no loss of life even after a storm with a speed of 120 km per hour passed through the state.

"The Gujarat government provided assistance to the people affected by the storm, so that people do not face any kind of problems in buying food items even if they do not have the daily employment. Electricity supply was affected due to uprooting of electric poles, however, it was restored immediately.

"At the same time, hundreds of villages in the state (Rajasthan) are without electricity even after the speed of 40 to 60 kilometres per hour. Chief Minister, you are just busy making false announcements and the people trapped in the flood are getting worried," Joshi said.

He said that neither the Chief Minister nor any minister of the government visited the cyclone-affected areas.

"No amount of assistance has been announced for the victims. We demand that from the State Disaster Management Relief (SDRF) necessary assistance should be made available at the earliest including arrangements for immediate stay, food and drink for the affected people," Joshi said.