COVID-19: Special evacuation flights for Indians stuck in US to operate this week
Washington: Special evacuation flights for Indians stranded in the US due to the global travel restrictions put in place to contain the coronavirus pandemic are most likely to begin from San Francisco this week, according to officials.
While no exact dates have been announced yet, the flights could take off from San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Washington DC, the officials said.
Given that a large number of Indian students and visitors are stranded in the US because of the strict travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, more flights are likely to be scheduled in the coming weeks.
Community leaders have welcomed the move of the Indian government which on Monday announced that special flights facilitating the return of Indian nationals stranded abroad on compelling grounds would begin in a phased manner from May 7.
The Indian embassy and its consulates in the US last week started preparing a list of Indians planning to travel back home. The list is being prepared through an online registration form.
This is for the first time in my memory that such an evacuation effort is being carried out by the Indian government for its citizens in the US, Jaipur Foot USA Chairman Prem Bhandari said as he thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the efforts.
Bhandari, who had been receiving calls from various stranded Indians, sometimes from students seeking accommodation, or visitors who had run out of medicine, last week wrote a letter to Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola, bringing to their attention the grave situation.
In the letter, he said: There are a large number of students who have run out of money. They don't have a place to stay. What is more worrisome is the fact that this uncertainty is having a toll on their mental and physical health .
A large number of Indian visitors, in particular senior citizens and parents of those working in the US, have run out of their essential medicines.
To get them medicine, even with a traveler's health insurance, is often not affordable. The evacuation flight is the need of the hour. This shows how much this government cares for its citizens, Bhandari said.
Over the past few weeks, several Indians have been reaching out to Indian Ambassador in the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu and the helpline established by it seeking an early repatriation back home.
Please start some flights for Indian citizens on humanitarian grounds. We have critically ill senior citizen parents who are alone and have to be looked after. Please understand our plight and bring this to the notice of the Indian government, one of them tweeted last week.
Please look after students those who are under 22 years, they are alone in Penn State college want to come back Home please arrange airlift and give priorities to students and old people, one student Asha Tiwari wrote on Twitter.
Some Indian origin people having Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cards have also sought help in travelling back to India.
Please also take care of OCIs as well. I am a resident of India and working in India. My family is in India too. I visited US for a month and got stuck here, wrote Kranthi Borra.
In a separate letter last week, Bhandari requested Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to waive off the visa extension fee of USD 455 given the exceptional circumstances due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The visa extension fee of USD 455 (including biometric service fee of USD 85) imposed by the US Department of State is further hitting these visitors real hard. As the Government of India is working tirelessly on expeditious repatriation of its citizens, I sincerely urge you to reconsider the visa extension fee and waive these charges on humanitarian grounds and as a gesture of compassion, he said.
The Indian government in a statement said that medical screening of passengers would be done before the flight.
Only asymptomatic passengers would be allowed to travel, it said. During the journey, all these passengers would have to follow the protocols, such as the Health Protocols, issued by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Civil Aviation.
On reaching the destination, everyone would have to register on the Arogya Setu app, the official statement said.
Everyone would be medically screened. After scrutiny, they would be quarantined for 14 days, either in a hospital or in an institutional quarantine on payment-basis, by the concerned state governments.
COVID-19 test would be done after 14 days and further action would be taken according to health protocols, it said.
The Ministries of External Affairs and Civil Aviation would soon share detailed information.
The coronavirus pandemic has infected over 1.2 million people and killed nearly 70,000 in the US, the worst affected country in the world.
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No 'VIP' involved in Ankita Bhandari murder case: Haridwar SP
Dehradun (PTI): Amid demands for a CBI probe into the Ankita Bhandari murder case, Haridwar SP (Rural) Shekhar Suyal on Saturday said that no "VIP" was found involved during the investigation.
Suyal told reporters here that the person whose name came up in the chats and during questioning, was a friend of Ankita, Dharmendra Kumar alias Pradhan, a resident of Noida. He was not a VIP, the officer said.
"During the investigation, police questioning revealed that he had come to the area for some work two days before Ankita's murder and had stopped at the Vanantra Resort for a short time to have a meal," he said.
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Suyal said that this was confirmed by the resort's records and questioning of the staff.
Urmila Sanawar, who claims to be the wife of former BJP MLA Suresh Rathore, recently released videos and audio recordings of her alleged conversations with Rathore, alleging that the 'VIP' in the Ankita Bhandari murder case is a person named 'Gattu'.
In another video, she identified Gattu as a top BJP leader in Uttarakhand.
Rathore, who was expelled from the BJP, said that his voice was generated using AI, and the audios have been widely shared with the intention of tarnishing his political image.
The Uttarakhand government on Friday said it was ready for any investigation into the Ankita Bhandari murder case "if credible evidence is presented".
Opposition leaders have demanded a CBI probe into the new allegations and the murder case, in which three people were sentenced to life imprisonment following an SIT investigation.
Ankita, who worked as a receptionist at a resort in Pauri district, was allegedly murdered on September 18, 2022. The state government had constituted an SIT to investigate the case.
The court sentenced Pulkit Arya, the owner of the resort and son of a BJP leader, and two others to life imprisonment in the case.
