Dubai returnees run from pillar to post to get their passports back

Ajay Joshi
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, September 17

On August 6, Manpreet Singh (45) landed from Dubai to spend time with his family in Lohara village on Nakodar Road. But before coming to Jalandhar, he was stopped at the Mohali airport and was sent to institutional quarantine.

He said before he was quarantined, his passport was collected by the Mohali administration and since then, he hasn’t got it back.

Like him, there are eight others in the district, who have been left in the lurch for over a month now. Manpreet said on completing the seven-day quarantine, he checked for his passport from the Mohali DC office and was given the contact number of an officer from the Jalandhar Municipal Corporation (MC).

“When I contacted the officer, I was told that my passport had not been dispatched from Mohali. When I contacted the Mohali airport authorities again, I was asked to dial a travel helpline number. The person on this number failed to trace my passport, which made us more anxious,” he said. Notably, after he contacted other Dubai returnees, who were known to him to check whether they’ve got their passport or not, he was surprised to know that none of the eight youths he knew had received their passports. Therefore, we approached the district administration officials here on Thursday, who have asked us to visit MC Joint Commisioner Harcharan Singh, as he was supervising the documentation of foreign returnees, but to no avail. He didn’t meet us.

Deepak Kumar, who is reportedly managing the passport collection work, also told them to wait till Monday, as the passports would still be there in Mohali. “Deepak told us to go to Mohali, if we fail to get our passports by Monday. But why should we go there when we were assured that we would receive our passports in our districts? The flight had youths from other districts, including Amritsar and Gurdaspur as well. I might have to go back anytime. We returned as we were temporarily relieved. The employers of three other youths are also asking them to report back,” Manpreet said.

While Deepak and the officials concerned in Mohali couldn’t be contacted despite several attempts, MC Joint Commissioner, who is dealing with the matter here, said: “We will get the passports as soon as possible, as a person is sent to Mohali every week to collect the passports.”

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