MEA appoints state-level coordinators to facilitate stranded Indians returning from abroad

As the Central Government has planned the retrieval of thousands of Indians stranded in foreign lands owing to the coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has appointed state-level coordinators to ensure close coordination with various ministries, State governments, and the Centre during their return. A team of 17 members has been constituted by the MEA that will coordinate the repatriation of over 14,000 Indian nationals from 13 different countries.

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The MEA has appointed Harish Parvathaneni as a coordinator for Andhra Pradesh, Alok Ranjan Jha for Bihar, Neena Malhotra for Delhi and Haryana, Dinesh Patnaik for Gujarat, Yogeshwar Sangwan for J&K and Ladakh. The ministry has appointed Manish as a coordinator for Jharkhand, Nagma Malik for Karnataka, Vikram Doraiswami for Kerala, Suresh Reddy for Maharashtra, Rahul Srivastava for Odisha, Virender Paul for Punjab, Manoj Bharti for Rajasthan and Goa C Rajasekhar has been appointed as the coordinator for Tamil Nadu, B Bala Bhaskar is a coordinator of Telangana, Akhilesh Mishra for Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, Arun Chatterjee for West Bengal, Robert Shetkintong for other parts of the country. 

As many as 14,800 passengers will be evacuated from 13 different countries, according to the MEA plan shared with the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) which is set to begin from May 7.

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Flights from India will fly to the Philippines, Singapore, Bangladesh, UAE, UK, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Singapore, Phillippines, USA, Oman, Bahrain, and Kuwait. The first day of evacuation will see 10 flights repatriate to 2300 Indians. Medical screening of passengers would be done before taking the flight and only asymptomatic passengers would be allowed to travel. On reaching the destination, everyone would have to register on the Arogya Setu app and everyone would be medically screened, a statement from MEA said.

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 government. COVID-19 test would be done after 14 days and further action would be taken according to health protocols. The respective state governments are being advised to make arrangements, including for testing, quarantine, and onward movement of the returning Indians in their respective states.