Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has written a letter to External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar and Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri urging them to arrange direct flights to Bhubaneswar from Gulf countries, United Kingdom, and Sri Lanka for bringing back Odia migrants, workers and students.
In the letter he said “I have received several representations from Odia persons living abroad requesting for their repatriation directly to Bhubaneswar. The Odia community representatives living in GCC countries, United Kingdom, and Sri Lanka have made specific requests to travel back from their respective capital cities to Bhubaneswar directly.”
Direct flights may be arranged from cities like Dubai, Doha, Dammam, Muscat, Bahrain, Colombo and London to Bhubaneswar, which will be commercial for the airlines. Pradhaan said.
This would go a long way in helping them during this time of crisis, he concluded.