Kolkata: Even as the first batch of pilgrims, who were stranded in Uttarakhand, arrived here on Saturday recounting their ordeal, hundreds others from West Bengal remain trapped awaiting airlift.  

 “About 800 people are still stranded in Badrinath. Though food and shelter are available, people have turned restive and are making frantic calls for rescue,” West Bengal Minister for Planning Rachpal Singh, who is overseeing the rescue operations from Uttarakhand, told The Hindu over telephone.  The State government has set up camps at Haridwar and Rishikesh to aid stranded tourists from West Bengal.

 Meanwhile, those who arrived early in the morning at Howrah Station in two trains, Upasana Express and Doon Express, narrated their plight on how they had to go without food and water for days before being rescued.

An Eastern Railway release said that to clear the stranded tourists at Haridwar and Dehra Dun, it had despatched one special train.

Source: The Hindu, DT. June 23, 2013.