CM Holds Meeting On Rescuing Tamils Stuck In Nepal
Reviewing the situation in Nepal, where 103 Kailash Yatra pilgrims were feared stranded, Vijay wanted the expedition of the rescue operations and the immediate repatriation of the 20 persons from the State who had been rescued and tracing the others and providing all help, including medical aid, to them.
Chennai: With no clear picture emerging on the fate of pilgrims from Tamil Nadu who were affected by the flash floods in River Bhotekoshi in Nepal’s Rasuwa district, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay chaired a consultative meeting at the Secretariat on Thursday and assigned the Resident Commissioner of Tamil Nadu House in New Delhi, Ashish Kumar, the task of leading an official team to Nepal to coordinate the rescue operations.
Reviewing the situation in Nepal, where 103 Kailash Yatra pilgrims were feared stranded, Vijay wanted the expedition of the rescue operations and the immediate repatriation of the 20 persons from the State who had been rescued and tracing the others and providing all help, including medical aid, to them.
An official press release said that the pilgrims had gone in two batches, the first one comprising 54 persons from Tamil Nadu and 3 from Puducherry and the second one having 49 persons from the State. Working with the officials from the Union External Affairs Minister, Indian Consulate in Nepal, the Tamil Nadu House in New Delhi and travel agencies.
At the meeting, attended by several ministers and officials with representatives in Tamil Nadu House joined through video conference, the Chief Ministers ordered the provision of counselling and medical aid by experts before arranging their travel back home.
A pall of gloom descended the Isha Foundation near Coimbatore as the 80 pilgrims from there went missing in Nepal after the flash floods. The pilgrims were returning from Kailash Mansarovar when the flash floods happened.
The disaster in Nepal also rocked the State Assembly with the Leader of the Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin moving a call attention motion and wanting to know how many people from Tamil Nadu were stranded. Referring to the emergency line provided by the State government, he wanted to know how many calls were received in the helpline.
Making a mention about the information that a former judge of the Madras High Court, Sivagnanam, was among those people stranded in Nepal, the leader of the opposition complained that officers from the departments to which questions were raised during Question Hour were not present in the Assembly.
Though the Question Hour was held properly with the replies coming forth from the government, the absence of the officers in the House was not proper, he said, requesting the Speaker to instruct the officers from the departments concerned should be present when questions were raised on issues relating to them.
He also raised concern over State Minister for School Education Rajmohan trying to make a statement on the Nepal disaster even before the DMK, which had given notice to the Assembly, raised the issue on the floor of the House.
While both the DMK and AIADMK objected to the Minister making a statement before the DMK raised the point in the House, Speaker J C D Prabhakar wanted to know what was wrong with the government presenting its case before the question was raised.
To the DMK’s objection to citing tradition, the Speaker said that when the call attention motion was raised over the Karur stampede in the Assembly, the then Chief Minister M K Stalin gave his version on the issue even before the question was raised.
