New Delhi: Home minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Indian ambassador to Nepal Ranjeet Ray and took stock of the situation in the Himalayan nation. “India is ready to provide help to Nepal,” Mr Singh said.
New Delhi’s decision not to “rush” immediate aid and assistance to Nepal comes against the backdrop of negative media publicity and controversies surrounding the April 25 earthquake and Nepal abruptly asking all foreign rescue teams, including India’s NDRF, to return home after 10 days.
It may be recalled that within hours of the April 25 quake, Indian rescue teams had landed in Kathmandu for rescue ops immediately. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took stock of the situation following the fresh earthquake. “The quake measured 7.1 on the Richter scale with its epicentre somewhere in Nepal,” an IMD official said. “The PM has directed all authorities to be on alert for rescue and relief operations, as required,” the PMO said.
Six NDRF teams each at its stations in Ghaziabad, Pune and Chennai have been put on standby to be sent to Nepal as required. Nearly four teams of the engineering task force of the defence ministry learnt to be in Nepal may be asked to stay back even as medical teams are once again preparing to go as soon as the request comes from that country.
Within the country, Bihar once again bore the brunt of the temblor that occurred less than three weeks after the huge quake that devastated Nepal. Union home ministry data indicated that Patna accounted for the largest number of four deaths, followed by Darbhanga and Saran (two each), besides Siwan, Nawada, Samastipur, Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi, Madhepura, Motihari and Purnea recording one death each. Another death was reported from Uttar Pradesh. The April 25 earthquake had left 58 dead in Bihar.
Though tremors from the quake was felt in areas far apart as New Delhi and Chennai, there were no reports of any casualties or any major loss of property from these places. The IMD has said Tuesday’s 7.3-magnitude earthquake in Nepal was followed by at least seven more tremors in a span of less than two hours.
