PUDUCHERRY: Puducherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy on Saturday informed the territorial Assembly that the government was in constant touch with the Centre and Nepal administration regarding the status of three residents from the union territory who were reportedly caught in the flash flood that struck Nepal.
The three people were part of the tourists taken to Nepal by a travel agency based at Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu.
The CM was reacting to Pro-tem Speaker A Anbalagan, who raised the issue, stating that so far nothing had been known about the plight of the three people from Puducherry.
Rangasamy said that the government had yet to get any information about the three persons. "We are contacting the Centre and the Government of Nepal for details. A search operation was on to trace them," he said.
The Pro-tem Speaker suggested to the chief minister to depute a high-level official team to hold parleys with the Centre, which Rangasamy accepted.
Meanwhile, the CM has written to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to locate the three persons caught in Nepal.
"The three persons -- Ananda Sundari, Vaishnavy Ramassamy and Geetha Ramassamy were part of the 57 pilgrims' team from Tamil Nadu. The last known location of all these persons was Syaburbesi near the Nepal-China border," Rangasamy said in the letter relased by the CMO.
Puducherry Congress leader and Lok Sabha member V Vaithilingam, along with the relatives of the three persons, met Lieutenant Governor K Kailashnathan at Lok Niwas here last night and requested steps for rescuing them.
A release from Lok Niwas said that the Lt Governor and officials of Puducherry government had been contacting the Centre and the Embassy of Nepal for steps to rescue the three persons.
Meanwhile, an 11-member Indian team reached Nepal on Saturday to assist local authorities following a flash flood that swept through Rasuwa and other parts of central Nepal on Wednesday. Over 500 people were killed, and nearly 2,000 others are missing.
The team, which includes medical personnel and tunnel rescue experts, was sent at the request of the Nepal government, according to Indian embassy sources, and is assisting in areas where large-scale rescue and relief operations are underway.