Cyclone affected in Darjeeling hills impatient for aid

Pankhabari (West Bengal), June 8 (ANI): Families, devastated by landslide triggered by cyclone Aila in Darjeeling hills, have called for immediate relief and rehabilitation.

About 100 families of the Pankhabari region in one of the worst affected areas have been staying in relief camp. They have asked the authorities to provide them with houses at least to protect them from the vagaries of nature.

"We want the authorities to provide us with homes immediately. How long are we going to stay like this? That is all we are asking for," Meena Chettri, a victim.

Keshab Rao, a leader of the Congress Party, who visited the victims staying in the relief camp, said that the political parties should rather get into the job to provide the displaced people with immediate relief rather then blaming each other.

"The Communist Party of India (Marxist) should have taken immediate steps. They are thinking of those in the plains, but these people in the hilly area should also have been taken into account. But this is not time to criticise. We should think of how to send immediate relief," Rao.

At least 20 people were reported to have succumbed and many others injured as landslides, triggered by cyclone Aila, which progressed further and hit the hilly region of Darjeeling on May 26.

Cyclone Aila that originated over the Bay of Bengal on May 25 caused havoc in many parts of West Bengal and Bangladesh.

In West Bengal, at least 5.1 million people were displaced, with more than one million people stranded in the Sundarban islands alone, most of them without any food or water, officials said. (ANI)