CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Centre and the Tamil Nadu governments to file status reports on the number of persons who visited Nepal during the August 26 flash floods and the progress made in the rescue operations to trace the missing persons.
The first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan issued the directions while hearing a public interest litigation petition seeking coordinated steps to trace the missing persons, including a retired judge of the Madras High Court, Justice V Sivagnanam.
The bench granted a week for the respondent authorities to file the report.
Tamil Nadu Advocate General Vijay Narayan submitted that as many as 305 persons from the state visited Nepal during the calamity and, of them, 220 have been rescued so far and sent back.
Full-fledged efforts are on to trace the remaining persons.
He told the court the family members of these remaining persons, including the retired judge, have been taken to the Nepal capital by the state government, which bears the travel costs, so as to provide them first-hand updates on the rescue works and identify the rescued/missing persons.
The bench adjourned the hearing to next week.
The petition, filed by AF Parvesh Musharaf, of Dindigul, stated that a group of 57 persons, including the former judge, from Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry went on the pilgrimage through a Kumbakonam-based tour operator.
He stated that the safety of a few of them is not yet known and the family members could not independently verify their condition.
The petitioner stated that he had submitted a detailed representation to the respondent authorities requesting action for search, verification and rescue of the missing persons through a well-coordinated action by the Tamil Nadu state government, the Ministry of External Affairs, the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu and the Nepal authorities.
He also sought the court to direct the respondent authorities to place a detailed report on the number of pilgrims visiting Nepal, details of the rescued and the missing ones, apart from furnishing these details to the families of the missing persons.