Pramod Madhwaraj is 10th richest state minister in India

May 6: Congress general secretary KC Venugopal on Tuesday termed as "inhumane" the government's decision to "impose excessive costs" on NRIs and expatriates for bringing them into the country from COVID-19-affected nations.

He demanded that the central government fly in the poor and vulnerable free of cost while charge the others with normal fares instead of high costs.

"The central government's decision to impose excessive costs on NRIs flying in special flights from the Covid-affected countries is an inhumane act," he said in a statement.

Venugopal said it was due to protests by a large number of expatriates and their relatives as well as the general public over the past few days that the central government took the decision to bring back Indian citizens from abroad.

"However, it is cruel that the Central government has taken advantage of this plight of expatriates by increasing the price of air fares up to three times. This is inhumane," Venugopal said in his statement.

He urged the Centre to take urgent steps to provide free travel to the most vulnerable, unemployed, sick and pregnant women and to others on normal fare.

Air India will operate 64 repatriation flights for a week from May 7 while the Navy deployed two ships as India rolled out a massive evacuation plan on Tuesday to bring back thousands of its nationals stranded abroad due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.

Those availing the repatriation flights will be charged, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told a virtual press conference in New Delhi. A passenger on a London-Delhi flight will be charged Rs 50,000 and on a Dhaka-Delhi flight Rs 12,000, he added.

From the Gulf countries to Malaysia and the UK to the US, the multi-agency operation christened 'Vande Bharat Mission' will see the state-owned airline operate the non-scheduled commercial flights till May 13 to ferry around 15,000 Indian nationals from 12 countries.

Mangaluru, May 6: Amidst delay in repatriation of Kannadigas stuck in Gulf countries including UAE and Saudi Arabia, on behalf of the office bearers, the executive committee and members of the Bearys Chamber of Commerce & Industry, its president Mr S M Rasheed Haji and executive committee member U T Ifthikar Ali today (May 6) called on authorities concerned in Dakshina Kannada to persuade them to follow up with the State and Central level authorities.  

The duo met Nalin Kumar Kateel, Dakshina Kannada MP, who immediately contacted Pralhad Joshi, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, over phone and urged him to take up the issue with the external affairs ministry. Mr Joshi told Mr Kateel that efforts are still underway to bring back Kannadigas stranded in Gulf countries. However flights schedules are yet to be finalised.

The duo then met Kota Srinivas Poojary, district in-charge minister, who said that the government is prepared to handle the repatriation flights and passengers. 

The duo also met IAS officer Rahul Shinde, who is in-charge of affairs related to international passengers coming to Dakshina Kannada amid covid-19 crisis. Meanwhile, Zakariya Jokatte, president of Jubail unit of BCCI, spoke to Mr Shindhe over phone.

The official explained that the govt has made elaborate arrangements to conduct medical test of passengers on arrival at the Mangaluru International Airport. 

The passengers will be categorised into A, B and C groups depending on their symptoms and co-morbid conditions. The category A passengers (symptomatic passengers) will be sent to isolation hospitals which may be Covid care centres. Category B passengers (asymptomatic but suffering from co-morbid conditions) will be quarantined at hotels, hostels, guest houses etc. Category C passengers (asymptomatic and healthy) will be home quarantined.

The minister and official also sought BCCI’s cooperation in handling the situation. 

Quarantine accommodation facility 

Yenepoya group has already offered two of their hotels as quarantine accommodation and promised to offer one more.  Entrepreneur U Kanachur Monu and many others too have offered their hotels as quarantine accommodation in Mangaluru. 

District administration has asked Treebo, a hotel aggregator to list such willing facilities on their website.

Mangaluru, Apr 15: For the convenience of the public during the lockdown period, the Department of Posts has been providing essential services to the public at its various branch offices which are functioning from 1000 hrs to 1400 hrs.

Medicines and other essential items can be sent via parcel from any town to any place in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.

Arrangements are also being made to extend this facility to nearby districts. In case of sending medicines and other essentials to other states from Mangaluru, the transportation has to be done via Bengaluru and can be expedited if a request for urgency is made, says a press release from the Senior Superintendent of Posts of Mangaluru Division on Wednesday.