4,013 stranded Indians brought to Maharashtra: CM
the Vande Bharat Mission, 4,013 Indians stranded abroad owing to the suspension of air services due to coronavirus have been brought back to Maharashtra on 30 flights since May 7, a statement released by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday has revealed. All the passengers have been kept under institutional quarantine developed by the state government for 14 days.
Of the 4,013 evacuees, 1,309 are from Mumbai and have been quarantined at various hotels. The 1,691 passengers from the other parts of state have been sent back to their districts. The state has also quarantined 1,013 passengers from other states at institutional facilities. “Those who are not from Maharashtra and are yet to get entry passes to their respective states have also been quarantined,” CM said.
“In the third phase of the Vande Bharat Mission, Air India has planned to operate 38 more flights until June 30, and hence, we are expecting more people to come to Mumbai in the coming days. In addition, charter flights have also been arranged to bring back Indian nationals. From Doha City (Qatar) alone, three charter flights have been scheduled for the next seven days to bring home the stranded nationals,” Thackeray said.
The stranded Indians have been evacuated from Britain, Singapore, Philippines, United States, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Kuwait, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Oman, South Africa, Indonesia, Netherlands, Japan, Sri Lanka,
Myanmar, Tanzania, Spain and Ireland.
STATE GOVT INCURS ₹104-CR EXPENSES ON BUSES FOR MIGRANTS
The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC), which ferried 5.37 lakh migrants in around 43,000 bus trips till May 31, has raised a bill worth ₹104 crore. Taking cognisance of the fact that migrants had begun returning to their native states on foot, the state had decided to make MSRTC buses available to ferry them to the borders of their respective native states as well as to stations from across Maharashtra, where Shramik Special trains were arranged for the workers to return home.
According to MSRTC, between May 9 and 31, the buses operated for more than 150 lakh kilometres (km) on ‘casual contract’ basis, in which the commercial rate of ₹58 per km had been levied for the trips, instead of the subsidised rate of ₹6 per km. “Earlier, the state had released ₹21 crore as advance for running the buses. The operation of ferrying the migrants ended on May 31 and the total cost incurred had been ₹104 crore, for which we have raised the bill,” said MSRTC vice-chairman and managing director (acting) Shekhar Channe.
Leaders from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have questioned the inflated rates applied by MSRTC on special buses, leading to a response by the ruling Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi, who have alleged that Shramik train fares for migrants were not subsidised by the Centre.