COVID Crisis: Taxis Demand Rs 60K To Ferry Bengal Student Home Post Quarantine

Jaisalmer: A student from West Bengal, who was evacuated from Iran with 450 others amid the coronavirus outbreak, has been asked to make his own travel arrangements post a 40-day quarantine period at an Army wellness facility in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer.

With the absence of transport facilities amid the lockdown period, private cabs are demanding Rs 60,000 to drive him back home to Uttar Dinajpur district in West Bengal, nearly 2000 km away from Jaisalmer.

“Pilgrims and students from Kashmir who returned with me are being sent home, but I am being asked to go home on my own. Why this discrimination? I went to study in Iran on a fully-funded scholarship programme. I can’t afford to spend Rs 60,000 given the economic condition of my family. I hope the government will make some arrangements,” the student, Minhaj Alam was quoted by the Indian Express as saying.

However, in the last three days, the authorities have sent 457 other evacuees from Iran in three batches to their hometown in Srinagar and Ladakh.

In a similar incident, the quarantine centre also called the family of Mohammed, a resident of Bihar who was in quarantine with Minhaj, to arrange for his travel.