Tripura law minister Ratan Lal Nath said on Sunday that the ministry of external affairs has sought clearance from the ministry of home affairs to bring back the people of northeastern states stranded in Russia, Ukraine and Bangladesh owing to the lockdown.

“According to the information shared by ministry of external affairs, there are 53 stranded people from Tripura in Bangladesh, who have expressed their desire to come back to Agartala. After the lockdown was imposed owing to the spread of novel coronavirus, these people got stranded in the neighbouring country. The external affairs ministry wrote a letter to the ministry of home affairs seeking permission for their repatriation through Akhaura checkpost by bus from Dhaka. Permission of the home ministry is yet to be received. Therefore, the date of repatriation is not yet finalised. We were informed by the home ministry on Sunday that these people are being brought back,” Nath said.

Altogether 428 people from the northeastern states are stranded in Russia, Ukraine and Bangladesh.

A letter from external affairs ministry chief coordinator for Northeast said around 177 people stranded in Russia and 198 in Ukraine have expressed their desire to return to India.

Of these 375 people, 18 are from Arunachal Pradesh, 194 from Assam, 59 from Manipur, 43 from Meghalaya, four are from Mizoram, seven from Nagaland, 16 from Sikkim and 33 from Tripura.

“MEA and Air India are looking at the possibility of arranging two direct flights from Moscow and Kiev to Guwahati in Assam,” the letter said.

It also said on arrival at Guwahati airport, thermal screening of all the passengers would be carried out by health officials.

The passengers found symptomatic during screening shall be immediately taken to a medical facility, according to protocol.

The remaining passengers shall be taken to a suitable institutional quarantine facility in Guwahati.

The centre has also asked the Assam government to identify a suitable place/hotel for quarantine and asked other state governments to facilitate the transport of passengers from Guwahati to their respective states.

However, the letter highlighted that expenses for the quarantine facility would be borne by the passengers.