Mangaluru, May 8: After continuous pressure on Union government from Karnataka NRI Forum- UAE, the first special flight carrying 180 Kannadigas who stranded at UAE due to Covid-19 pandemic will fly from Dubai to Mangaluru on May 14.
The special flight will take off from Dubai at 4.10 p.m. UAE time to reach Mangaluru at 9.10 pm IST on May 14. Earlier it was reported that the flight will operate on May 12. However, sources of Mangaluru International Airport and Air India today confirmed that first flight will be on May 14.
The state government has directed Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts authority to quarantine all passengers once they reach.
All Kannadigas will be given permission to travel back home only after they test negative in Covid test at Dubai airport.
In fact, Karnataka was missing in the list of states to receive special flights when Ministry of External Affairs arranged them to bring stranded Indians at UAE. Special flights were arranged only to Kerala and Tamil Nadu people stranded at UAE in the first stage.
Thanks to Karnataka NRI Forum of UAE which opened helpline (https://uaekannadahelpline.club) to seek assistance to Kannadigas, nearly 2000 Kannadigas have registered for assistance in which 127 pregnant women, 27 senior citizens, 700 people who have lost jobs aftermath of coronavirus sought assistance from NRI forum.
After providing food and shelter to Kannadigas who lost jobs at UAE since March 2020, NRI forum put pressure on both state and Centre to arrange special flights to send them to home.
The NRI Forum has approached Indian Consulate at UAE and chief minister BS Yediyurappa to evacuate Kannadigas, but got no response. Following this, Karnataka NRI Forum President Praveen Shetty approached Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers DV Sadananda Gowda for help. Gowda immediately responded the call and he spoke to MEE to arrange special flight for Kannadigas as well.
Indian government has promised to arrange special flight to Mangaluru or Bengaluru by next week to bring Kannadigas.
Comparing to other Indian States, Karnataka has the highest number of its people working in UAE. Around 1.25 lakhs Kannadigas are working in UAE in which majority are working classes. Due to Covid-19 pandemic thousands of workers have lost jobs, Mr. Shetty explained.
"Indian government had arranged special flights from US, UK, Singapur and other countries to bring back Indians, but excluded UAE in the list. Actually, lakhs of Indians are working in UAE as labourers and in odd jobs, the government should have given first priority to bring labourers rather rich one", he opined.
"BJP has 27 MPs from Karnataka. We continuously requested all BJP MPs and state government but none of them came to our help. Thanks to Mr Gowda for his timely intervention to bring stranded Kannadigas", Mr Shetty said.
Comments
Muslim organisations felicitate State BJP Chief Nalin Kumar
I want to know from them wat was the need for this. Has this helped the ordinary Mangalore Muslims in anyway. I would not have asked abt this if the program was conducted in your house. But here it is done in the name of Muslims. We need to stop being intellectually dishonest
Young energetic Muslim brothers present in Dk ,please note we need young leaders to lead us . Wake up ... and take over .
We respect ur decision sir.
But there are a lot of questions about it on people's mind.
We need to be updated about ur next plan of action.
Are u planning to approach the court for gaining the permission from the police, bcoz otherwise I don't think we will get the permission
Secondly, a few days back I wanted to contact Muslim central committee office to confirm if the protest Wil be there. I googled for the no, but the no. did not exist. Does that mean the Muslim central committee does not have an office or telephone no????
This only shows how organised we are.
Requesting Muslim central committee to get their house in order. Get more professional. Also consult people to utilise various platform to responsibly collect funds from so many ordinary bearys who want to donate money, but don't know whom to send it to.
We need an action committee to handle such situations. It must consist a battery of lawyers to fight the cases filed by the police.
If our leaders are old, they need to groom new leaders into the committee.
Moreover, it is important to question these so called leaders about their fecilitation program conducted for making kateel wen he won the election. Wat was the purpose of such fecilitation. Becoz I don't think he gives a damn when our community suffered. I question, whether all this is done in our name only to gain your contact and flourish ur business???
Never ever dare to do so in the name of Muslims
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