Maharashtra CM Uddhav asks Indians stuck abroad to fill form for facilitating their return

On Tuesday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray requested the people from Maharashtra who are stranded abroad to fill a form if they wished to return home. This comes a day after the Centre announced that that Indians stuck in other countries would be repatriated via special flights and naval ships. Thackeray stated that the information given in the form would be passed on to the Ministry of External Affairs for facilitating the return of people from the state after the lifting of the restrictions.

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Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally surges to 14,541

771 new COVID-19 patients were reported in Maharashtra on Monday, May 4 propelling the state's COVID-19 tally to 14,541. Mumbai accounts for a huge share of the state's COVID-19 crisis with 9,310 cases and 361 casualties. In a positive development, 350 patients were discharged from the hospital in the day, taking the total number of recovered to 2,465.

Moreover, 35 more patients- 18 from Mumbai, 7 from Pune, 5 from Akola, and one from Solapur, Thane, Aurangabad and Thane passed away owing to the novel coronavirus. Thus, the state has recorded 583 COVID-19 deaths so far. While 1,98,042 persons are in home quarantine, 13,006 others have been admitted to institutional quarantine centres.

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Evacuation plan announced

Addressing a press briefing on Tuesday, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced the plan for evacuating Indians stranded abroad from May 7 to May 13. A total of 64 flights- 10 from UAE, 2 from Qatar, 5 from Saudi Arabia, 7 from the UK, 5 from Singapore, 7 from the US, 5 from the Philippines, 7 from Bangladesh, 2 from Bahrain, 7 from Malaysia, 5 from Kuwait and 2 from Oman shall be operated in this period. These flights shall land at various destinations across the country such as Kerala, National Capital Region, Telangana, Maharashtra, Punjab, J&K, etc.

Puri stressed that this was a special evacuation mission wherein passengers will be charged. He also listed ticket charges of certain flights namely, London-Mumbai: Rs.50,000, Chicago-Delhi-Hyderabad: Rs.1,00,000, Dhaka-Delhi: Rs.12,000. According to the Civil Aviation Minister, over 1,90,000 persons would benefit from this. 

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