Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday urged the Centre to evacuate 35 youth from the state trapped in the locked-down city of Wuhan in China following the outbreak of the deadly Coronavirus. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister requested him to direct the Indian embassy in China to evacuate them to India at the earliest and provide all necessary assistance. Jagan wrote that these youth were part of a group of staff of Chinese firm Panel Optodisplay Technology Private Ltd (POPTL) who went there for training in August last year.
POPTL selected 35 students from Visakhapatnam in 2019 during campus placements to work at its upcoming LCD TV screen-manufacturing unit near Tirupati. “Later, they along with others, were sent to Wuhan for training. The batch was to return to India in the first week of March this year,” he wrote. Jagan also mentioned in the letter that the parents of the affected employees are worried and want their wards back home at the earliest. “Therefore, I request you to direct the concerned officials in the Indian Embassy in China to evacuate them at the earliest and provide all necessary assistance,” the Chief Minister wrote. Meanwhile, national carrier Air India’s special flight operated to the Chinese city of Wuhan to evacuate Indians stranded there, landed at the IGI airport in New Delhi on Saturday.
Also Read: WHO declares coronavirus global health emergency
The airline said that the special flight landed at Delhi airport at 7.26 am and had ferried back 324 Indian nationals. Air India started evacuation of Indians from Wuhan with the first special flight which was operated using a double decker jumbo 747 with 15 cabin crew and five cockpit crew. Besides, the crew, the flight also ferried a team of five doctors from the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital and one paramedical staff from Air India.
IANS
