Discourteous welcome for 179 Dubai returnees who landed at Chandigarh airport

Ravi Dhaliwal

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Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur, August 6

The 179 persons, 26 of them from Gurdaspur, who arrived at the Chandigarh airport on Thursday afternoon from Dubai on a flight chartered by philanthropist Surinder Pal Singh Oberoi had a harrowing time as the state government failed to make arrangements for their onward transportation to quarantine centers earmarked for them.

Shallu, a girl hailing from Bariar village in Gurdaspur district, said a majority of the passengers had no money at all and had reached back to the country totally at the benevolence of Oberoi.

The businessman, who was at the airport to receive the passengers, said he faced no such problem when three of his chartered flights arrived earlier. “Earlier, buses were stationed at the airport to ferry passengers to quarantine centers. However, this time things have been botched up. There is no transportation facility available, due to which the returnees are facing a plethora of problems,” he said.

Oberoi’s organisation — Sarbat Da Bhala Charitable Trust — shares details about chartered flights the civil aviation authorities, which in then conveyed to the state government to make necessary arrangements.

Gurmeet Singh, whose company had given him the pink slip during the lockdown, said he had no money in hand and had no idea how to reach his home in Gurdaspur. Oberoi said: “After paying Rs 40 lakh for the chartered flight, I am now paying for transportation to their respective destinations from my pocket.”

Of the returnees, eight are from Himachal Pradesh and six from Haryana. “All of those who disembarked the flight have no money. Whatever we had we have spent on boarding and lodging in Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman after the company fired us. We have no idea how we will reach home now,” said Harmeet Singh, another boy from Gurdaspur, adding that taxi owners were fleecing people by charging exorbitant prices. “I saw a boy shelling out Rs 3,000 to reach his home town of Patiala which is twice the fare in normal situation,” said Harmeet.

Sources revealed that communication gap between various government agencies led to the fiasco.