Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (ANK)
Mangaluru, Jul 4: As many as 38 flights are scheduled for the next 11 days to Kerala under Vande Bharat Mission from the UAE. Air India flights under Vande Bharat Mission are scheduled from July 4 July 14.
Unfortunately, none of the flights are scheduled to Bengaluru or Mangaluru from the UAE. So far, only a handful of flights have arrived from the UAE to Karnataka. Due to coronavirus pandemic, several people in the UAE are eagerly waiting to return to their hometown but the lack of flights to the state has made Kannadigas wait for long.
Representational image
Vande Bharat Mission schedule from July 4 to July 14
"The central government has completely neglected Karnataka. Even the state government is not showing much interest in bringing home the people of Karnataka stranded in UAE. Last month, Kerala succeeded in sending more than 40 flights under the mission, but Karnataka has been completely neglected. It is easy to make plans to bring flights to Karnataka. Both the state and central governments are ruled by the same political party. But somewhere, it looks like both the governments have failed to understand the difficulties of Kannadigas stuck in the UAE,” says Manjunath, a well-known social worker among the Kannadigas in UAE.
"The elected MPs from Karnataka are an utter flop in the matter of bringing home the NRIs. The majority of MPs belong to the ruling party. Being an active worker and office bearer of that party, I am ashamed to tell this. People of Karnataka have fooled themselves by electing these representatives. Meanwhile, the MPs of Kerala and Tamil Nadu have successfully manage to get flights scheduled from the aviation ministry for people of their state stuck abroad. They know people's reaction if they fail to fulfill their demands. However, the elected representatives of Karnataka are busy in giving communal statements and personal abuses on rivals," says Raju Seidikoppal.
It is also said that there is some kind of lobby in the embassy from Kerala which makes them bring flights to Kerala with such ease. Stranded people have faith in the government, but their hopes are likely to be shattered as they have to wait for long to come to their hometown due to unavailability of flights to Bengaluru or Mangaluru. The state government should initiate bringing more flights to the state which will help many. There is high demand for flights to Bengaluru and Mangaluru which the government has to consider.
Altogether, Kerala has brought in flights with such ease, while the union government has seemingly neglected Karnataka and failed to lend a helping hand to the stranded people in the UAE.