Direct hotels to charge foreign returnees only for 7 days & refund balance: MHA to states

The Ministry of Home Affairs has written to states across the country to ensure that the earmarked hotels refund the amount of remaining 7 days charged in advance to the foreign returnees who have been quarantined. In a letter to all Chief Secretaries, Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla apprised the states that hotels have been charging Indian nationals with 14-day advance payments for quarantine facilities. However, as per revised guidelines issued by the Health Ministry, foreign returnees are to be in institutional quarantine for 7 days followed by 7 days of home quarantine after medical assessment. Hence, individuals need not be charged for the complete 14 days. 

"You are requested to issue necessary directions to hotels earmarked for institutional quarantine to ensure that foreign returnees who were quarantined in hotels and paid an advance of 14 days, shall be refunded their balance amount, without any delay," Home Secy Ajay Bhalla wrote to Chief Secretaries. 

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'Target to bring back 100,000 Indians'

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar chaired a detailed meeting on the Vande Bharat Mission on Tuesday. The meeting was attended by officials from the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Air India, Ministry of Home Affairs, DMA and the Bureau of Immigration. Taking to Twitter, Jaishankar informed that the focus of the meeting was to ramp up the scale of the repatriation mission and to enhance its efficiency. 

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Highlighting 10 key points from the meeting, Jaishankar informed that the second phase of the Vande Bharat Mission from May 17 to June 13 aims to bring back 100,000 stranded Indian citizens across 60 countries. Additionally, the government is also preparing for a third phase of the mission and reflected upon the arrangements being made for amnesty beneficiaries in the Gulf countries. 

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