Bhatkal activists help eight stranded Indians fly back to India after months of struggle
One of the stranded workers belonged to UP CM's Gorakhpur constituency
Dubai, UAE: Community volunteers from Bhatkal have grabbed headlines in UAE after they reached out to eight Indian workers stranded in the UAE for several months to repatriate them to India.
The community volunteers Shirali Muzaffer Shaikh, Afzal SM, Sarfaraz Jukaku, and Hidayath Addoor swung into action when a Khaleej Times reported the plight of the stranded workers on June 16. They collaborated with the Consulate General of India Dubai and arranged for a swift repatriation of the workers.
Muzaffer Shaikh is from the AIM India Forum, a platform that supports stranded Indian nationals. Hidayath Adoor is convenor of the International Kannadiga’s Federation.
Khaleej Times had reported the workers were spotted on a street in Sharjah seeking food, shelter, and assistance. According to the Khaleej Times report, the workers who hailed from the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh were duped by an agent who charged them Dh 5,000 promising them jobs in the UAE. One of the stranded workers belonged to UP CM's Gorakhpur constituency.
The stranded workers have been identified as Vijaee N (Parsav, Uttar Pradesh), Ramagya Saini (Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh), Pramod Kumar (Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh), Mohammed Naseem (Bihar), Adya Prasad ( Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh) Sree Chandra (Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh), Raijullah Devan (Bihar), Pradeep Gupta (Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh)
When the workers reached UAE in March, they were left out in the cold, unable to look for new jobs or even return to India as their passports were not with them.
The volunteers reported the issue to the police with the help of authorities at the CGI and arranged the necessary travel documents, immigration clearance, and PCR tests. The ticket fares for the workers were arranged by the Indian consulate.
Hidayath Adoor arranged for the food and shelter for the workers for two months while Muzaffer, Afzal, and Sarfaraz helped them get their white passports.
CGI arranged their travel on July 2 to New Delhi from where they will be taken to their natives.
The workers breathe a sigh of relief when they finally boarded a flight to India on July 2 and expressed their gratitude to the Indian embassy and the social workers who also accompanied them to the airport.
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Indigo flights chaos: SCR to run special trains to clear passenger rush
Hyderabad (PTI): The South Central Railway on Saturday announced that it would run four special trains to manage the surge in passengers resulting from the large-scale cancellation of IndiGo flights here.
The move comes as flyers face significant disruption and long queues at the airport due to the cancellation.
A press release from the SCR said it is running the special trains to clear the extra rush of passengers to Chennai, Mumbai and Shalimar (Kolkata) from Hyderabad today.
Meanwhile, as many as 43 outbound Indigo flights were cancelled from here on Saturday, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport sources said.
ALSO READ: IndiGo cancels over 200 flights from Delhi, Mumbai on Saturday
Similarly, 26 incoming flights are also likely to be cancelled during the day, they said.
The flight cancellations drew ire from passengers, who thronged the IndiGo counters at the airport demanding to know the exact situation.
“This is utter nonsense! Digiyatra done, message received that departure has been rescheduled ahead of the scheduled departure and now upon arriving at Hyderabad airport coming to know at the security checkpoint that Indigo flight is cancelled,” Tarun Singha, former Ministry of Defence spokesperson said in a post on X.
“But the thing is if you don’t shout they do nothing. Example at Hyderabad Airport, there was no staff no flight information for an hour. Then a fellow passenger started shouting on mic and an Indigo staff appeared finally,” a netizen said in a post.
On Friday, when IndiGo cancelled over 1,000 flights from across airports, its CEO Pieter Elbers apologised in a video message for the major inconvenience caused to passengers due to the disruptions.
In the one-way video communication, Elbers also said that the airline was expecting fewer than 1,000 flights on Saturday.
