Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Jun 15: Karnataka government has been working appreciably to bring back Kannadigas stranded overseas. Even though it has helped people from the state who had not been able to return to India because of lockdown measures in the countries where they are currently put up, in the case of Kuwait, it has failed. This is so because of inertia on the part of the central government to help Kuwait Kannadigas out.

Already around ten flights have reached Kerala from Kuwait during the recent weeks. Indians in Kuwait have also been flown back to states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh along with others. The respective state governments had worked hard to bring their people back. But so far not even a single flight has been scheduled to bring back Kannadigas from Kuwait to Mangaluru. Earlier, a flight from Kuwait had been planned to the city on June 16 but it stands cancelled.

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Former president of NRI Forum of Karnataka, Dr Arathi Krishna, who has been coordinating efforts to bring back Kannadigas from other countries, said that the Indian embassy at Kuwait has shown the reason that the number of passengers from Kuwait to Mangaluru is less. "Therefore, flight services have not so far been introduced. The state government should put pressure on the concerned and try to get a flight from Kuwait to Mangaluru through Bahrain," she suggested.

NRI entrepreneur at Kuwait, Mohandas Kamath, said that flights to other states had been arranged from Kuwait but not a single flight has been planned for Karnataka. He said that the state and central governments have been urged to arrange a flight for people waiting here to return home since long.