- By Aalok Sensharma
- Sun, 26 Apr 2020 06:59 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: The central government is consulting the states and union territories (UTs) to bring back the stranded Indians from abroad and will likely announce a plan soon, said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Saturday.
Union Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba said that a decision in this regard would be taken after getting feedback on the preparedness of states.
"MEA has started the process of consultation with states/UTs for bringing back Indians stranded in foreign countries. A decision would be taken after getting feedback on the preparedness of states/UTs to receive them following all required health precautions," he said during a video conference interaction with Chief Secretaries of all states and UTs to review the implementation of lockdown restrictions in the country.
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"Continued strong action is required from all states and UTs on surveillance front and testing needs to be done in an aggressive manner to find out the people infected by the virus and providing them medical treatment as per the health protocol," he added.
Meanwhile, a News 18 report has suggested that the government will take a decision regarding post May 3, i.e. after the end of the lockdown. "Any decision regarding airlifting of stranded Indian citizens will be taken only after May 3," News 18 sources said.
Many Indians were struck abroad due to the lockdown imposed in the country and other countries to check the spread of the novel coronavirus. The Centre, however, has said that it is keeping track of the stranded Indians and are in touch with the foreign governments where Indians are residing to help and accommodate them till it decides to airlift them.
As per reports, almost 10 lakh Indians in Gulf countries are waiting to be airlifted to the country while a large number of Indian diaspora also live in USA, UK and Middle East.
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Earlier this month, a plea was also filed in the Supreme Court to bring back the stranded Indians. The top court, however, had said that such an action at this point of the time is not feasible.
On the other hand, the government had said that it had evacuated the stranded Indians before the COVID-19 situation was not so grim.
A nationwide lockdown was imposed by the government on March 25 in order to control the coronavirus outbreak. It was later extended till May 3. Following the lockdown, the governmnet had also halted international and domestic flightsordering commercial airlines to shut down operations.
