A group of 75 students hailing from Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana, finally returned home from Singapore on Friday evening after a 72-hour ordeal.
The students were forced to spend heavily on last-minute flight tickets as Air India Express did not make travel arrangements for them from Singapore to Chennai.
K. Namratha Reddy, a medical student at a Phillippine university, hailing from Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, told The Hindu on Saturday that the Singapore authorities came to their help, providing them food, even as the Indian High Commission there was not even forthcoming to help them leave the country and come back to India.
Students had booked their tickets from Manila to Singapore and Singapore to Chennai, but since the Air India Express did not operate its flights, they had to book their tickets to Mumbai by paying ₹37,000 per person, and again book domestic tickets separately to their individual hometowns.
The ordeal of the students did not end on Thursday late night, as they were stopped by the Maharashtra police at the Chhatrapathi Shivaji Airport in Mumbai, and were told that pasengers arriving from international destinations would not be allowed to fly on domestic routes.
“We were given a clean chit as far as our COVID-19 health status was concerned, but had to go through a lot of discussions with officials before we could fly out of Mumbai airport and reach our destinations by Friday evening,” Ms. Namratha said.
“Our parents are a happy lot and are relieved that we have come back home,” Ms. Namratha said, adding that it was unfortunate that there was a lack of communication from the Indian government on how to fly back home.
