Revenue Minister R.B. Udhayakumar informed the Assembly on Thursday that the State government was making efforts to bring back hundreds of fishermen from Tamil Nadu who are stranded in Iran.
He said 170 students from T.N. who had been stranded in the Philippines had landed in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday.
Responding to a special calling attention motion, the Minister said the Tamil Nadu government was making efforts to bring back hundreds of fishermen stranded in various places across Iran, since air traffic had been disrupted in the country in the wake of the coronavirus scare. “The fishermen are in touch with the authorities. It is not true that they are struggling in Iran without food,” he said.
Delhi meeting
The Minister said Tamil Nadu’s special representative in Delhi Thalavaisundaram and other officials had called on the Union Minister concerned regarding the issue.
DMK legislator S. Austin (Kanniyakumari), Congress member J.G. Prince (Colachel) and AIADMK MLA M. Thamimun Ansari (Nagapattinam) moved a special calling attention motion in the House, seeking steps to bring back the fishermen stranded in Iran as well as the students stranded in the Philippines. Mr. Udhayakumar said the students would reach their respective home towns after “due quarantine”.
Replying to the demand that the Union Minister personally visit Iran, Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar said in a lighter vein: “I’m willing to visit Iran (which has been affected by the coronavirus) but I will have to directly come to the Assembly on my return.”
