Not possible to evacuate citizens from other countries during lockdown: Centre tells Delhi HC
The response from the government came on a plea to evacuate 581 Indian medical students who are stranded in Bangladesh.
The Centre on Thursday informed the Delhi High Court that it is not possible for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to organize any kind of evacuation of Indian nationals from Bangladesh or any other countries due to the lockdown situation.
The response from the government came on a plea to evacuate 581 Indian medical students who are stranded in Bangladesh. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was found by an advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, seeking directions to the MEA to evacuate those students from the neighbour country.
Bansal also sought the appointment of nodal officers in all Indian embassies and make their contact details public so that the citizens who are stuck outside India can contact them and ask for help in the time of coronavirus crisis.
In his plea, Bansal has stated that he is receiving a lot of calls on WhatsApp seeking his help to evacuate Kashmiri students who are facing extreme difficulties in Bangladesh due to lockdown.
"It has been learnt that there are around 581 such students in Bangladesh whose welfare and well-being is at stake and looking for help from the Indian authorities," said the petition.
It may be recalled that India has evacuated over one thousand national from different countries that were severely hit by coronavirus including China, Iran and Italy among others.