Earthquake claims 50 lives in Bihar, says Nitish

As many as 50 people have been killed in yesterday's earthquake in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said and directed government officials to carry out relief work for the affected on a war footing.

Addressing a press conference after presiding over a review meeting with secretary-level officials at the state secretariat today, he said as per the latest figures available, as many as 50 people have been killed in the powerful quake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale yesterday.

Kumar said one person was killed in a quake-related incident in Samastipur district.

The Chief Minister said he has ordered officials to undertake relief work among the quake-affected on a war footing in Bihar for which all the ministers and secretaries will camp in the districts under their charge.

Relief work will also be carried out simultaneously for all those affected by unseasonal rains in February and March this year, cyclonic storm in Purnia and other districts earlier this month, besides the earthquake, he said.

To mitigate the woes of people affected by a series of natural calamities in the past few months, it has been decided that one quintal foodgrain, besides Rs 5800 assistance will be distributed to each affected family as immediate relief, Kumar said.

He said an ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh has been paid to the kin of all those people killed in the earthquake.

The extent of damage to crops and houses was being assessed for providing compensation to the affected people, Kumar said, adding, the compensation to those people whose houses have been destroyed or damaged by the quake and other calamities recently will be provided from the Disaster Management Funds.