New Delhi: In an effort to establish better coordination between the returnees from abroad and the state governments, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Tuesday deployed 17 officials as part of major repatriation exercise, code named “Vande Bharat Mission.
The mission is being started on May 7, wherein 64 flights have been deployed to bring back Indian nationals from 12 foreign countries, including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar among others.
Indian Navy has also sent its two ships, including INS Jalashwa and INS Magar – which are on enroute to Maldives.
“Commenced preparations for Vande Bharat Mission. Planning underway for stranded Indian nationals to return home starting May 7," tweeted Foreign Minister S Jaishankar.
As per the sources in the government establishment, 8 officials of additional secretary level rank and 9 senior joint secretaries will coordinate with the various states.
The officials who have been assigned to coordinate with the states and other ministries and departments, include P Harish for Andhra Pradesh, AR Jha for Bihar, Neena Malhotra for Delhi and Haryana, Dinesh Patnaik for Gujarat, Yogeshwar Sangwan for Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and Manish for Jharkhand.
Besides, Nagma Malik, Rahul Srivastava, Virendra Paul, C Chandrashekhar and B Balashakar will coordinate with Karnataka, Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, respectively.
While Manoj Bharti will look after the states of Rajasthan and Goa and Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh will be coordinated by Akhilesh Mishra.
