The team of Ministers and senior bureaucrats from Tamil Nadu who are in Odisha to coordinate the rescue and relief operations, following the train accident, informed Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Saturday that there were no one from the State among the roughly 70 bodies identified until then.
The team further said that so far, no one from Tamil Nadu had been identified among the injured persons being treated at two major hospitals in Odisha. Mr. Stalin had a meeting through video-conference with the team, which included Ministers Udhayanidhi Stalin and S.S. Sivasankar; Transport Secretary K. Phanindra Reddy; Revenue and Disaster Management Secretary Kumar Jayant; and Chairperson of Teachers Recruitment Board Archana Patnaik. The team also informed the Chief Minister that the mortal remains of 237 persons were kept at four places at Balasore. While 70 of those killed were identified, there were no one from Tamil Nadu among them, the Balasore Collector informed the team.
While Mr. Udhayanidhi, Mr. Sivasankar and Mr. Reddy visited the accident site, Mr. Jayant and Ms. Patnaik were at the control room set up by the Odisha government to collect information on people from Tamil Nadu. The team headed by Mr. Udhayanidhi visited the injured at the government hospital in Balasore. They also collected information about the people being treated at a Cuttack hospital. There was no one from Tamil Nadu among these injured, the team informed Mr. Stalin.
An official release said efforts were being made to reach out to passengers or their relatives based on the reservation list shared by Southern Railway. Mr. Stalin asked the team to be in Odisha for a few more days. He said three government medical college hospitals in Chennai were prepared to treat anyone injured in the accident.
Later on Saturday, the team met Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to discuss relief and rescue of people from Tamil Nadu affected in the accident.
