Writes letter to Foreign Minister for safeguarding interests of countrymen stuck due to Corona Virus
Jalandhar, April 3 ( Wishavwarta)-Lok Sabha MP from Jalandhar Chaudhary Santokh Singh today urged the Union Foreign Minister Mr S Jai Shankar to make special provisions for bringing back the Indians stranded in various countries abroad.
In a letter to Union Minister, the Lok Sabha MP said that in view of COVID-19 pandemic, several steps have been taken by the Government of India to stop its spread, including a ban on international commercial flights. Consequently, he said that a large of Indians were stranded around the world adding that many of them were either on tourist or student visa and were running out of money due to unforeseen stay and expenses in a foreign country. Chaudhary Santokh Singh said that he has came to know that several special flights were being operated by various airlines including Air India to evacuate foreign nationals stuck in our country.
The Lok Sabha MP said that in many cases, empty aeroplanes had flown to airports in Indian cities and picked up the foreign nationals. He said that it has came to his attention that the UK Government was making special arrangements to operate charter flights to evacuate their citizens in the country. Chaudhary Santokh Singh said that these flights would be arriving in India without passengers adding that the Union government must explore feasibility to make the arrangements for bringing our stranded nationals back from the United Kingdom through these flights so that they could be united with their respective families.
The Lok Sabha MP further said that as a precautionary measure, they could be kept in quarantine in India for the mandatory minimum period on their own cost. Urging the Union Minister to make necessary arrangements for bringing our fellow Indians back from the UK on inbound empty flights, the Chaudhary Santokh Singh said that same arrangements could be made in case of rescue flights coming from other countries also.