Third flight with 183 Ukraine evacuees lands in Mumbai
Darpan News Desk IANS, 03 Mar, 2022 12:57 PM
Mumbai, March 3 (IANS) An Air India Express flight from Bucharest, carrying 183 Indians from the war-torn Ukraine, landed here on Thursday, officials said.
The flight IX-1202 with 183 passengers, including an infant, arrived at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport at around 5.40 a.m.
The evacuees were received by Union Minister of State for Railways Raosaheb Danve-Patil with flowers and words of solace as they trooped out lugging their belongings.
Outside the airport, the returnees were given a warm welcome by their families, relatives and friends anxiously awaiting their arrival since midnight.
This was the third flight of evacuees in the past six days to Mumbai and a few more are expected to be operated this week as part of the Operation Ganga launched by India.
While one flight from Bucharest is likely to reach here at 1.50 a.m. on Friday, another is scheduled from Budapest the same day at 8 a.m., said officials.
Till date, Danve-Patil said around 4,000-5,000 Indians, mostly students have safely returned home and the operations will continue till all those stuck there are brought back.
Referring to alleged reports of snooping of prominent citizens using Israeli Pegasus spyware, senior BJP leader and union minister Meenakshi Lekhi on Thursday said that these kinds of stories are concocted, fabricated and have no evidence.
On Wednesday, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal gave permission to the Jantar Mantar demonstration on the condition that a maximum of 200 protesters will be allowed till August 9 between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Sidhu sent an invite, signed by some 62 legislators, through working presidents, Kuljit Singh Nagra and Sangat Singh Gilzian, to the 'sulking' Chief Minister to attend the swearing-in ceremony.
In a statement here, Badal said it was condemnable that the NDA government had targeted Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar and the Bharat Samachar group because they had posed tough questions to the government in keeping with high standards of journalism.
In a written reply to parliamentarian Binoy Viswam in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State (External Affairs) V.A. Muraleedharan said during the unprecedented crisis, the international community came forward with offers of solidarity and assistance for specific medicines and equipment that were not immediately available in the country.
With the Pegasus snoopgate leading to ruckus in the Parliament, Union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday that the news story on snooping was an attempt to malign India's democracy and its institutions.
