Singapore plans quarantine-free travel for fully-vaccinated people from India from Nov 29: Reports
Singapore, Nov 15: Singapore is planning to allow quarantine-free travel for fully-vaccinated passengers from India and Indonesia from November 29 and will add three more countries early next month as it hopes to reclaim and rebuild the country's status as an international aviation hub with global connectivity, according to media reports on Monday.
Currently, there are 13 countries, including Canada, Australia and Germany, under Singapore's vaccinated travel lane (VTL) programme, the Channel News Asia (CNA) reported.
According to a Straits Times report, travellers from India and Indonesia will be able to enter Singapore under the quarantine-free travel scheme from November 29. In addition, travellers from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will be able to enter Singapore from December 6, in a further expansion of the VTL scheme.
Travellers under the VTLs are not subject to stay-home notice on arrival. Instead, they will be required to produce a negative pre-departure test taken within two days prior to departure and undergo an on-arrival PCR test, it said.
Addressing a COVID-19 multi-ministry task force press conference on Monday, Transport Minister S Iswaran said Singapore and India have been discussing the mutual recognition of vaccination certificates.
Since November 12, India has started recognising vaccination certificates issued by Singapore.
This means that fully vaccinated travellers from Singapore entering India will no longer need to undergo post-arrival tests home quarantine, they will just need to self monitor for 14 days upon arrival, Iswaran said.
"Our discussions with India are progressing well. And we aim to resume two daily VTL flights each to Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai by Nov 29. The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) will provide more details once finalised," the CNA report quoted Iswaran as saying.
The health ministry has also updated its public health assessment and will upgrade India to Category 2 from November 19. The Category 2 classification means that a country either has similar or lower Covid-19 incidence rates than Singapore and other VTL countries.
"We are in discussions on the resumption of scheduled commercial passenger services (with India). As today the only flights from Singapore allowed to carry passengers to India are government charter relief flights under the Vande Bharat mission," Iswaran said.
Applications for short-term visitors and long-term pass holders will start on November 22 for travellers from India and Indonesia, while travellers from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE will be able to apply from November 29.
Returning Singapore Citizens and Permanent Residents who are fully vaccinated will not need to apply if they are travelling via the VTL.
In a press release, the CAAS said the step-by-step extension of the VTL allows it to revive air travel safely without compromising public health and will also help to reclaim and rebuild Singapore's status as an international aviation hub with global connectivity.
In 2019, India accounted for about 7 per cent of passenger arrivals at the Changi Airport here.
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BJP won't cross 50-mark in Bengal polls, says TMC in response to Shah's 'two-thirds majority' claim
Kolkata (PTI): The Trinamool Congress on Tuesday hit back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah, accusing him of peddling falsehoods and making baseless claims about securing a two-thirds majority in the 2026 West Bengal Assembly elections.
Senior TMC leader and state education minister Bratya Basu told reporters that Shah's remarks were based on hollow assertions and claimed that the BJP would not even cross the 50-seat mark in the polls.
"Shah will keep coming and going like a tourist. Such visits will serve no purpose," Basu said on the sidelines of a programme.
"The BJP will not even cross the 50-mark in the assembly polls and suffer a humiliating defeat," Basu claimed.
Addressing a press conference here, Shah claimed that the BJP would form the next government in the state with a "two-thirds majority in 2026".
"We will not only identify infiltrators, but we'll also drive them out. Bengal will have a new BJP government after April 15, 2026, as people have made up their minds," he said.
Shah also took a dig at the Trinamool Congress government on the issue of women's safety.
"It has been officially stated that women should not step out of their homes after 7 pm. What era are we living in? Are we living in the Mughal period?," he said.
"Mamata ji, this is a free India. Ensuring that women can step out safely whenever they choose is a constitutional right. Your government has failed to provide this basic security," he added.
Criticising Shah over his comments on women's safety in the state, senior TMC leader and minister Sashi Panja urged the Union home minister to visit Bengal during the festive season, like Durga Puja and Christmas, when thousands of women move about freely and participate in festivities.
"In case a stray incident happens, our administration takes prompt action to bring the culprits to book. Instead, the rapists of Bilkis Bano are garlanded by your party activists. Your party shields Kuldeep Sengar and Brij Bhusan, who were accused of committing atrocities. Amitji should not lecture on women's security," she said.
Panja accused Shah and his party at the Centre of coming in the way of the passage of the Aparajita Bill, which would have ensured exemplary punishment to rapists after conviction.
On Shah's claims about the industrial decline of Bengal, Panja said since 2011, investment of Rs 13.8 lakh-crore came to the state.
"Bengal occupies the second berth in the MSME sector as per the figures available with the Centre, and he is peddling falsehood about the industrial growth of Bengal," she said.
TMC spokesperson Jay Prakash Majumdar also dismissed Shah's assertion that the BJP does not engage in temple-based polarising politics.
"Everyone knows the BJP campaigned on temple-masjid politics in both the 2019 and 2024 elections. This brand of politics will again be rejected by the people of Bengal," Majumdar said.
