152 A.P. residents stranded in Nepal seek help

After two days of efforts, the Andhra Pradesh government evacuated 154 Telugu people stranded in the strife-torn Nepal. More people from the State are said to be waiting to return home.

Special Commissioner, Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in New Delhi, Arja Srikanth, who has been coordinating the evacuation efforts with the State government, said on Friday (September 12) that 152 more people from the State are held up there. “Of them, 50 are from the Rayalaseema districts of Nandyal and Kurnool. They are waiting in Kathmandu, and we are trying to arrange a flight for them,” Mr. Srikanth told The Hindu.

Another pilgrim group of 16 members, 10 from Visakhapatnam and six from Tirupati, are headed to Kathmandu from Mansarovar Lake in Tibet, China, located near the holy Mount Kailash. Mr. Srikanth said a bigger group of 86 members, drawn from different districts of Andhra Pradesh, are also stranded in Nepal, waiting to cross the border and return home. “We are facilitating flight slots for them,” he said.

It may be noted that a special flight arranged by the State government brought home 154 people from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu on Thursday night. The flight dropped 114 passengers in Visakhapatnam before proceeding to Tirupati with the remaining 40 evacuees. Ten of the 154 passengers were stranded in Pokhara and they were flown to Kathmandu on a special flight arranged by the Andhra Pradesh government, where they joined the other 144 rescued from Kathmandu. They were all brought back to India on the Indigo aircraft.

Another group of 22 people from Andhra Pradesh had crossed into India by road through the Bihar border, while 12 more were flown to Nepalgunj, on the Uttar Pradesh border, from Simikot by a special flight from Lucknow.

The returnees thanked the government.