'Troubles' for repatriates on arrival: Dakshina Kannada DC writes to airport director
Mangaluru: Some passengers who arrived here on board the first repatriation flight from Dubai two days ago have complained about 'lack' of proper arrangements for handling the returnees,prompting the Dakshina Kannada district administration to take up the matter with airport authorities.
Referring to the inadequacies flagged by the repatriates, district Deputy Commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh has written to Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) Director V V Rao, urging him to personally oversee arrangements when passengers arrive in next special flights, official sources said on Thursday.
Some of the passengers, who arrived by the Air India Express flight, later said the airport did not have sufficient staff to handle the repatriates, who included pregnant women and those who required medical support.
Also, the procedures at the airport took a long time and the staff did not properly brief the returnees, they had alleged.
In his letter, the DC referred to the inadequacies and said she had issued prior directions to the airport authorities to extend support to the passengers.
She requested the airport director to personally oversee the arrangements during the next flight to make sure that such incidents do not recur and help the district administration in coordinating with airport authorities and the airlines bringing the passengers.
The first repatriation flight to Mangaluru from Dubai landed at the MIA late Tuesday night with 177 passengers, who included 38 pregnant women and 12 medical emergency cases.
All the foreign returnees were screened as per the standard operating procedure to ensure they were asymptomatic for COVID-19 and then taken to their chosen place of accommodation in KSRTC buses for 14 days quarantine.
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Mumbai family deaths: FDA finds no watermelon vendor in area to check for affected stock
Mumbai (PTI): The Food and Drug Administration team probing the cause of death of four members of a family in south Mumbai's JJ Marg area have not been able to zero in on any watermelon vendor in the vicinity to check if the fruit had a role to play in the ill-fated incident, an official said on Thursday.
The Dokadia family, residents of Ghari Mohalla on Ismail Kurte Road, had hosted a get-together of relatives on the night of April 25. At around 1 am, hours after the guests had left, Abdullah Dokadia (40), his wife Nasreen (35), and daughters Ayesha (16) and Zaineb (13) ate pieces of a watermelon.
They suffered severe bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea in the early hours of April 26 and were rushed to a local hospital before being referred to the government-run J J Hospital where all four died during treatment.
"The FDA team visited the house of Dokadia and collected samples of chicken pulao and watermelon pieces. After two days, the leftover chicken pulao had developed fungus growth. The team also tried to locate watermelon vendors to check for any affected lots," he said.
But no vendors were found in the area for the past two days, preventing the FDA team from getting samples, the official added.
The FDA has requested the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to share the report on the food samples collected by them, he added.
A senior Mumbai police official said the force is waiting for FSL reports in the case, adding that questions on presence of sedatives etc in the fruit could be answered only then.
The statements of the kin of the deceased are being recorded to ascertain if it is a case of mass suicide, and it is being checked if the Dokadia family were in debt or distressed over some issue, the police official said.
