Bring home Telangana NRIs from Gulf: Congress

Hyderabad: Congress leaders on Sunday demanded that the State government make all arrangements necessary to bring back all the NRIs belonging to Telangana from the Gulf countries.

PCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, PCC Covid Task Force chairman Marri Shashidhar Reddy, CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and retired IFS officer and Congress leader BM Vinod Kumar wrote to the CM around 85 lakh Indians are working in different Gulf Counties out of whom as many as 15 lakh belong to Telangana State.

These people are sending Rs 6,500 crore to the State as remittances annually. However, Corona pandemic has hit them hard, threatening their lives and livelihoods due to lockdowns.

It is estimated that more than 3.5 lakh Telangana migrant workers have either lost or would lose their jobs.

The Congress leaders pointed out to KCR how the Kerala government had been very proactive in helping Keralites living in other parts of the world.

Kerala was making all arrangements for institutional quarantine, isolation and treatment of Gulf returnees and it was also believed to be arranging about 1.50 lakh beds for this purpose.

The leaders called upon the the state government should follow the example of Kerala government by setting up a dedicated website to enable the people of Telangana origin to register their names directly.

"Once international flights resume, there will be big rush for airline seats to return. Serious thought must be given to work out a hassle-free plan to bring our people back," demanded the Congress.

Kuwait had offered to make arrangements free of cost to send back the stranded Indian migrants. Government of India may be requested to take up with the host countries to make similar arrangements, the leaders added.