Potential tragedy averted: Drunk woman pilot of Mangaluru-Dubai flight suspended

Newsroom, May 5: Following the union government's nod, preparations are afoot to bring back Indian nationals stranded abroad from May 7 onwards.

According to sources, in the first phase from May 7- 14, the government would allow more than 60 “non-scheduled, commercial” flights to operate from about 12 countries to India to bring back 15,000 citizens. At least half of those flights will be from the Gulf region, including UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman, while the rest would bring passengers from the U.S., the U.K., Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines and Bangladesh.

The flights would be spread over 10 States identified as having the largest numbers to return, with Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Delhi (NCR) receiving the maximum number of flights.

A meeting held at the Ministry of Civil Aviation looked specifically at flights, mainly operated by Air India, while it awaits a final plan from countries where Indians need to be airlifted from. The first flights planned at present are from Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Riyadh and Doha, flying directly to Kozhikode and Kochi.

While the full estimate of Indians needing to return home could cross ten lakhs (a million), with more than two lakhs having registered to return from the UAE alone, officials said their return would be “prioritised and staggered”.

Flight plan for return of Indian nationals stranded abroad:

Udupi, Mar 11: An elderly woman, who had recently visited Saudi Arabia has been admitted to an isolation ward at KMC in Manipal, here with symptoms of fever, cough and breathlessness.

The 68-year-old woman hails from Sagar taluk in Shivamogga district of Karnataka.

The patient had travelled to Saudi Arabia in the last week of February and was treated for fever cough and breathlessness there.

After recovery, she had travelled back to Bengaluru, where she was screened at the airport. 

Later, she reached Shivamogga where she was treated at Nanjappa Hospital for symptoms of fever, cough. 

As she has symptoms of coronavirus, she is quarantined and is under observation. The samples will have been sent to Bengaluru and the result is awaited.

Wayanad, Jul 6: DM Education and Research Foundation (DMERF), headed by Dr Azad Moopen, has come forward to handover DM WIMS Medical College, Nursing and Pharmacy Colleges and its associated institutions in Wayanad to the Kerala Government. 

According to Azad Moopen, Managing Trustee, DMERF, the Kerala Government has been deliberating to set up a medical college in the area over the last 7-8 years to address the challenges being faced by the local population due to lack of local availability of advanced healthcare facilities under the government sector. 

The handover by DMERF would address the Government's need. DM WIMS is one of the few NABH accredited medical colleges in the country, he said.

The DM WIMS Medical College and its associated institutions were established by the DMERF Trust 10 years ago to help the backward community of the district. 

Run in a charitable manner, the medical college has a capacity of 150 seats and has seen two batches of doctors graduate from the institution. With a total built up area of 14 lakh sq feet, it also has a 700-bed super-specialty hospital catering to the local community and helping in training healthcare professionals, a 100-bed specialty hospital, a pharmacy college, and a nursing college.

A new medical college by the government will require substantial investments and minimum of 5 years to become functional. “We think that DM WIMS can cater to the requirement of the government and setting up another medical college might not be required to cater to the existing population,” he said.

Moopen also announced a donation of Rs 250 crore out of the total investment in the institutions to the government to provide treatment to the needy population in the backward, landlocked district and to train good quality doctors from the State.