Indian premier Singh visits quake-ravaged region, announces aid

Sep 29, 2011, 10:51 GMT

New Delhi - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday visited the remote north-eastern state of Sikkim, which was the worst-affected region in a recent earthquake in the Himalayas, and announced an aid package of more than 200 million dollars.

The 6.8-magnitude earthquake that struck on September 18 killed 116 people in India, Nepal, the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China and Bhutan.

Eighty people died in Sikkim, which was the epicentre of the quake, while 19 were killed in the rest of India.

Nine people died in Nepal, seven in the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China and one in Bhutan.

Singh met victims at a hospital in state capital Gangtok, and later announced a relief package of 10 billion rupees (more than 200 million dollars), the IANS news agency reported.

'Every possible assistance will be (made) available to the Sikkim government to manage effectively the task of reconstruction, rebuilding and redevelopment,' Singh told reporters in Gangtok.

The federal government is to provide assistance for earthquake-proof buildings in Sikkim and the reconstruction of roads in rural areas.

During his day-long visit, Singh also made an aerial survey of the northern areas of Sikkim that bore the brunt of the earthquake.

Sikkim is located in the eastern belt of the seismically unstable Himalayan region. This region includes Kashmir, which is divided between India and Pakistan, and where 74,000 people died during the last major earthquake in 2005.