| Stuck in Katra, Nepalese family wants to return home | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, May 18: A family from Nepal, which is stranded in Katra amid the lockdown, has urged the Jammu and Kashmir administration to deport them to their native land at the earliest. The family claimed that they had come here to pay obeisance at the Vaishno Devi Shrine in March but have been stranded since the nationwide lockdown was imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Though the Nepalese family, which includes five women, six men and children, are being given food and shelter by the district administration, they now want to return to their native country.
“We have been here since more than 70 days. The administration is providing us with food and shelter but we have families back home where old parents and children are waiting for us. The administration should send us back,” a woman from the family told mediapersons here. Reasi district commissioner Indu Kanwal Chib said, “They are neither pilgrims nor tourists. They are destitute people, who generally come to such places. For the past 70 days we are looking after them. We are providing them with food and shelter.”
Chib said the administration is now planning to send them back home.
“Though sending them to Nepal is a bit difficult for us and not in our domain, we can send them to Delhi, Uttar Pradesh or till Bihar border where they will get a train. The administration is paying for their travel expenses but I want to know their willingness. Sometimes they show the urge to go back but then they backtrack,” Chib said, adding that in a day or two they will be sent to a place nearest to their native land.
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