Month after return from Italy,Telugu students reach home

For the 33 Telugu students who were stranded in Milan, Italy, it was an end of a 30-day-long ordeal as they reached Andhra Pradesh early Tuesday. They had spent a month in quarantine, after being airlifted from Milan by the Indian government by a special Air India flight on March 15.

Vijayawada:Almost a month after being evacuated from COVID-19 ravaged Italy, 33 Telugu students reached Andhra Pradesh early Tuesday,after being quarantined for weeks at a Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) facility.

The group-including five girls had started off for home from Delhi on April 10, after arranging for a bus with their own money, as the officials at the ITBP camp in Chhawla refused to help them.

The Telugu students had returned to the country after being airlifted from Milan by the Indian government by a special Air India flight on March 15.

According to reports, one student got down on the way in his home state Chhattisgarh, whereas four alighted in north Andhra and the remaining 28 reached Vijayawada. Officials noted down their details and handed them over to their parents.

As per reports, the students belonging to Guntur, Prakasam, Kurnool, Kadapa and Nellore districts left for their homes while those from Krishna district were taken to a government-run hospital in Vijayawada for medical checkup.

While en-route their bus halted at Chhattisgarh due to lockdown violation after which the Andhra Pradesh government and Ministry of Home Affairs intervened giving necessary permissions to allow the bus to travel, after which it was released and allowed to proceed further.

According to the students, the immigration formalities were cleared on the runway itself and they were whisked away to the ITBP camp at Chhawla for 14-day quarantine.

However, they spent another fortnight in the camp due to the lockdown.

The students said they were being regularly checked and all of them tested negative on March 15 and 29.

WIth inputs from IANS