Bengal to provide 100,000 tents to Nepal

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The West Bengal government will provide around 100,000 tents for the quake-affected people in Nepal, officials said here on Saturday.

Immediately after Nepal's Kolkata-based Consulate General's Office urged the state government to provide tents to Nepal, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took the decision to this effect on Saturday.

Officials in Nepal said there was also a need for 400,000 tarpaulins to distribute among the quake victims.

Officials at Nepal's embassy in New Delhi said Banerjee herself will attend the tent handing over ceremony scheduled to take place in Kakarvitta along the border with Darjeeling district on Monday.

Nepal's Ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyay said India will also be urged to engage in further rescue and relief efforts as per Nepal's need.

Currently, over 40 tonnes of relief material collected in India is stuck here and only 10,000 tents have been sent to quake-hit areas so far.

"I have already requested the health ministry and other concerned authorities to send 50 medical ventilators to Nepal for the victims," said the ambassador.

The relief material from India, according to Upadhyay, had already made its way to Nepal but delivery has been delayed in the absence of cargo services.