Bihar sets up Helpline for Pilgrims stranded at Kedarnath

Bihar government has decided to establish a Helpline in State disaster management department having telephone number 0612-2217305 to provide relevant information about Uttarkhand victims.

The State would also send a team of senior offers to ensure proper relief and return of 300 people from the Bihar trapped in Kedarnath and various others in parts of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

The decision was taken after CM Nitish Kumar held a meeting with senior officers, including Chief Secretary A K Sinha and state police chief Abhyanand.

He also announced Rs 2 lakh assistance, Rs one lakh from state government and an equal amount from CM Relief Fund, to family of people of the state who lost their lives in the floods and landslide in Uttarakhand.

The CM asked the Chief Secretary to get in touch with his Uttarakhand counterpart to send a team of doctor and medicines for victims. He asked him to regularly monitor the relief work for Bihar people being carried out there.

On instruction of the CM, control room has been established in district headquarters to provide information about people who had gone to Uttarakhand.

Elaborate arrangements have been made in district hospitals for treatment and counselling of people on return to their native places, a release said.

Former Bihar Health Minister Ashwani Choubey was among natives of Bihar being trapped in flash floods, rains and landslide in the Himalayan state. Choubey along with his family and children has been airlifted and brought to Delhi.

Five members of his group, including two kins, security guard and personal assistant, were still missing and feared killed.