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Lockdown blues: Hundreds of Canada-based NRIs wanting to fly back stuck in Punjab
Hundreds of Canada-based non-resident Indians (NRIs) wanting to fly back are stuck in Punjab for lack of proper arrangements to ferry them to the country of their
Hundreds of Canada-based non-resident Indians (NRIs) wanting to fly back are stuck in Punjab for lack of proper arrangements to ferry them to the country of their residence amid the ongoing lockdown to contain the Covid-19 spread.
Newton Sidhu, a Chandigarh-based businessman who has started online initiative #CanadiansStuckinPunjab, said, “We have a list of around 5,000 such NRIs or Permanent Residence (PR) card holders, but the total count is nearly 25,000. When the lockdown came into force, none of them knew how to fly back. Many of them don’t know how to get curfew passes issued from the authorities online. We are helping them for their smooth and safe return.”
“We have been trying to book chartered planes for Canadian citizens hailing from Punjab for the last fortnight. We even negotiated the price of a chartered plane with some companies that are willing to fly out of the Chandigarh or Amritsar international airports. As the Canadian High Commission issued clearance for this today with the intervention of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), a glimmer of hope has emerged for a direct flight from Punjab at an affordable price,” he said.
He said the Punjab government has even offered to provide buses for transportation of the NRIs to airports.
The role of Canadian ministers and MPs of Punjab origin, who are 19 in number, has been far from satisfactory in helping these people, he added.
Sukhi Sandhu, a Punjabi community activist in Canada, said, “The Canadian government is duty-bound to help its citizens in any eventuality anywhere in the world. To our surprise, none of them bothered to respond to our calls, emails, Facebook posts or tweets.”
Colonel (retired) Gurnam Singh, an overseas Canadian citizen from Mohali who along with his wife came to India in October 2019, says, “We got registered on an official online portal of the Canadian High Commission. But nothing concrete has happened so far.”
Moreover, many found the already operational special flights too expensive.
The first flight from Delhi to Toronto on April 4 cost 3,988 Canadian dollars per passenger. For those flying to Vancouver in the same flight were charged 4,262 Canadian dollars. More flights are departing from the Amritsar airport via New Delhi on Tuesday and Thursday.
