Back from Qatar, many won’t go back

Nagpur: Rajendra Parate, a software engineer was looking dejected after de-boarding the Indigo flight which landed from Qatar at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport here on Friday. He not only lost his job, but was also forced to return to the native town with his wife and child.
He was among 150 flyers who landed in the city with their families in the first chartered flight for which they paid about Rs24,000 per head.It wasn’t a part of government’s Vande Bharat mission, but arranged by the expatriates in association with Maharashtra Mandal in Qatar. After arrival, all travellers were provided an option of mandatory week’s quarantine at various city hotels or told to make arrangements at native places.
Another charted flight was scheduled to land in Mumbai by midnight, which would be full of Maharashtrians, according to Vinod Nair, a city resident and a member of Indian Cultural Centre (ICC) in Doha, who is helping out thousands of stranded Indians to return. Due to his efforts, the first flight carrying Indians, including those from Vidarbha, landed in Mumbai last month from Qatar.
“All of them were stranded for over three to four months and were trying to get back to the native places. Most of these were from adjoining states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Since there is no international airport nearby, they preferred to land in Nagpur,” Nair told TOI from Doha.
The passengers, who heaved a sigh of relief after landing in the city, also thanked Maharashtra Mandal president Nilambari Savardekar for her help along with Nair.
“Most of repatriates have lost jobs in the last three to four months and were in dire straits. The Nagpur flight included 84 flyers from Chhattisgarh, 54 from Maharashtra and remaining from MP. We were helped by Nair and ICC team in securing the requisite permissions from various offices for the flight,” she told TOI.
Among those coming back included C James from Kerala, now settled at Harda in Hoshangabad. She had gone to attend her daughter’s pregnancy, but was stranded there due to the lockdown. Her husband James, was eagerly waiting for her outside the arrival lounge, but the authorities asked her to undergo seven days quarantine. “I arrived here with a driver after over seven hours of journey, but now I’ve to forcibly wait here,” he said.
Nimraj and Kanchan Rahangdale were impatiently looking out for their son Shubham, who was on the flight. He had gone for internship in Qatar after completing his engineering from JD College. “We’re relieved and wouldn’t like to send him again to any country in this pandemic situation,” they said.
Sachin Borkar, who was among the flyers, had gone to Qatar for working on the FIFA stadium on a long term visa. But after the lockdown, his contract was terminated midway due to global crisis. “I am from Paoni in Bhandara and was working with an Italian firm. Now, I wouldn’t like to go back.”
Doctor Abdul Qadir Khan from Betul, who was working with a leading hospital there, said that though he came back to be with his family, he would like to resume the job in Qatar whenever the situation normalizes.