Efforts on to trace people from WB in Nepal

A crisis management group has been formed to deal with the impact of the quake that hit some parts of West Bengal even as efforts are on to trace over 100 people from the state who were in Nepal during the calamity.
"Our first priority is to save and protect lives. We will ask for funds from the Centre only after proper and total assessment," Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced yesterday after visiting the quake-affected areas in North Bengal.
108 people from the state, who were in Nepal on various purposes, were yet to be traced and efforts were on to locate them, she said.

Another 336 people from West Bengal who were in Nepal had returned or were on their way to the state, Banerjee said.
Four staff members of the Nepalese Consulate in Kolkata were unable to get in touch with their family members, in Nepal, Sita Basnet, a senior official of the consulate, said.
"Apart from Dulal, there are three more staff in our consulate, who could not make any contact with their family members. They are very tense. The communications lines are completely snapped... Its very tough to get in touch with them," Basnet said.

The state government was sending a bus to Nepal to send people who wanted to go there to meet their near and dear ones, as also to bring back those stranded there, the CM said.

The crisis management group headed by Director General of Police (Coastal Security) Raj Kanojia has members from the disaster management group, police and hospital authorities, Banerjee had said, adding monetary assistance would be sought from the Centre after detailed assessment of the damage.
It was the onus of the central government to provide such support as it was a case of natural disaster, she said.
The PWD and Irrigation departments have been asked to check all the bridges in North Bengal to find out whether these have been damaged by the earthquake.
A fresh tremor measuring 5.1 on the Richter Scale was felt in Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and some other districts across the state last evening.

Three persons were killed and 69 others were injured in Saturday's 7.9 magnitude temblor in the state.
Tremors were felt twice on Sunday in Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and in different parts of state at around noon and also at night triggering panic among people who ran out of homes and gathered on the streets.
Nepal government had sought assistance from the West Bengal government and Bengal was rushing a rescue team to the Himalayan kingdom, the CM said.
The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration has declared closure of all educational institutions in Darjeeling Hills till today for the "safety of children".