Night out in the open

Siliguri residents out on the streets after fresh tremors on Monday. (Kundan Yolmo)

TT, Siliguri, April 27: Tanmoy Goswami, an IT professional, spent last night with his family in the community hall on the ground floor of his building after feeling one of the several tremors that the town felt yesterday.
Today, he will spend the night in the open with his family.</
The reason is a fresh tremor that Siliguri residents sensed a little after 6pm today.<
The Indian Meteorological Department website mentioned that at 49 seconds past 6.05pm, a quake of moderate intensity - 5.1 on the Richter scale - was recorded near Bengal's border with Nepal.
"I live on the fifth floor. Yesterday, I spent the night in the community hall on the ground floor of the building with my family. This morning, we entered our flat. Now that a tremor has happened again, we will not stay in the flat but in the open," Goswami said.
"There are many other families in our apartment who are doing the same thing," he added.
Many residents of the town have been spending sleepless nights since yesterday because of the tremors. They plan do to the same today.
Avik Chakraborty, a civil engineer based in Siliguri, said: "Since yesterday midnight, five tremors were felt in Siliguri. The latest one occurred at around 6.05pm today around 12 hours after the earlier tremor which was recorded at 6.09am."
"A reason for the constant tremors is because the epicentre of the earthquake is close to Siliguri. As per United States Geological Survey, the epicentre is on the India-Nepal border and only 10km southwest of Mirik and 20km north-northwest of Naxalbari, which means, it is only 60km from Siliguri," Chakraborty said.
Most of the private schools in both Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts remained closed today.
Government and government-aided schools however, were open.
The tremors have also come in the way of people's jobs.
"I need to go out on field trips across north and south Bengal immediately. But my family members, particularly my daughters are stopping me and asking me to postpone my trip," said Subrata Dutta, a salesperson.
Throughout the day today, life was almost normal in Siliguri as the tremor in the morning was light.
"But the moderate tremor in the evening again got people worried. People have again moved out to open grounds and streets and are not ready to enter their homes," said Shankar Ghosh, a CPM leader and a resident of ward 24.
No major damage or casualty however, has been reported so far.

A 70-year-old person at Odlabari in Jalpaiguri died yesterday after he suffered a cardiac arrest when a moderate tremor hit north Bengal.

Ram Roy was taken to Malbazar subdivisional hospital where doctors advised that he should be admitted. "His family members however, took him back home. As another round of tremor was felt at 10pm, he suffered a heart attack and died," a hospital source said.

Officials of Sashastra Seema Bal who guard the India-Nepal border said they have set up relief camps at the bordering areas in Bihar and West Bengal for earthquake victims.

"We are also providing support to facilitate movement of buses from Nepal to Bengal and Bihar to rescue the victims and those who have been stranded in Nepal because of the disaster," an official said. "There are communication links at the relief camps so that those rescued from Nepal can communicate to their near and dear ones about their arrival," he said.