Had to depend on NGO for food: Nepal survivor

CHENNAI: Back home almost a week after his traumatic accident when a suspension bridge over the Trishuli River collapsed in Nepal, second year social work student Chitrasenan on Friday claimed that help from the Nepali government and the Indian embassy there had been very “basic and minimal”.Landing at the Chennai International Airport at 9.50 pm by a SpiceJet flight, the boy from Cuddalore said that they found it difficult to organise their food, basic amenities and communication. Only an NGO, Caritas Nepal, bothered to extend a helping hand.Apart from Chitrasenan, two other students from the Mar Gregorios Arts and Sciences College, Sijo Wilson and Thuvan Singh Kamai, landed here on Friday. While the other two were whisked away by their waiting parents, Chitrasenan, who sustained injuries to his arm, spoke to Express. “Six more are in Nepal right now with injuries to the head, feet and hands, but only the urgent surgeries have been done so far,” he said and added that there were indications that two of his injured classmates were critical. “Luckily, they have their parents with them,” he added as he made for his room in Tirumangalam, here.These six students are the only ones left in Nepal of the college trip of 43 students and four faculty/facilitators from Chennai, he confirmed. No date of return for them had been finalised, he added.Refuting reports that some remains of the missing student Hamida Momin were found, he claimed that Nepali Police had given up hope of finding her body, washed away last Saturday afternoon, in the water bodies that were “sometimes over a hundred feet deep”.