Sadananda Gowda urges EAM Jaishankar to repatriate stranded Kannadigas from Gulf nations

A day after a controversy broke out over Union Minister Sadananda Gowda skipping the institutional quarantine after he travelled to Bengaluru, he has written to Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar to repatriate Kannadigas from Gulf countries. In a letter to Jaishankar, he has said that thousands of thousands of Kannadigas are stranded despite fulfilling the conditions of preference guidelines issued by embassies in Gulf countries. He urged the EAM to 'personally intervene' and instruct the concerned to arrange flights to Mangalore/ Bangalore from these countries in the existing schedule.

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This comes even as Central government has launched the ''Vande Bharat Mission'' on May 7 to bring back Indians stranded in various countries due to coronavirus-related restrictions. Under Phase I of the mission, the government evacuated a total of 6,527 Indians from the Gulf region and from countries like the US, the UK, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Maldives.

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Backdated SOP

Earlier on Monday, Union Minister Sadananda Gowda skipped the institutional quarantine after travelling to Bengaluru on a flight, from Delhi. As controversy broke out, the Karnataka Health Ministry issued a backdated addendum to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued earlier exempting ministers from quarantine. The former Karnataka Chief Minister had skipped the mandatory quarantine citing his position of responsibility. The SOP released earlier did not mention any exemptions for ministers or officers to the mandatory institutional quarantine to people travelling through domestic flights which resumed operations on Monday. 

The addendum which has been dated May 23 reads: "The ministers of Union Government or State Government or Officers on their official duty who are travelling across states will be exempted from requirements of quarantine as has been done for health professionals and others in para 4 (e)."

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The addendum also exempts persons obtaining a valid 'COVID negative' certificate from the ICMR, not more than two days old from the date of journey are exempted from the institutional quarantine. Such a person will instead be asked to go for 14 days of home quarantine. The addendum also allows airlines crew on official duty to be exempted from the quarantine. 

Domestic flights commence

Domestic air flight services commenced from May 25 after almost two months of lockdown due to Covid-19. Union Civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced that the domestic flight operations shall be restricted to 1/3rd capacity of the approved summer schedule 2020 along with a new fare limit to make flights affordable. He said that for this fare structure sets a minimum and maximum level for three months.  Flight routes had been divided into 7 sections-flying times of fewer than 40 minutes, from 40 to 60 minutes, 60-90 minutes, 90-120 minutes, 120-150 minutes, 150-180 minutes and from 180 to 210 minutes. 

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