The first flight under Vande Bharat Mission from Qatar landed at Mangaluru International Airport on Friday evening. There were 185 people including five infants on board.
Thousands of people had remained stranded in Qatar following the lockdown. Without the flight services, many were in distress. Members of different organisations had been appealing to the Centre and state governments to arrange flight services to rescue the stranded people.
Indian Community Benevolent Forum (ICBF) joint secretary Subrahmanya Hebbagilu, vice president Mahesh Gowda and others also had submitted a memorandum to officials.
Subrahmanya Hebbagilu said there are 30,000 Kannadigas residing in Qatar.
As many as 3,000 among them had registered to return to their homes.
“Already two flights had reached Bengaluru,” said sources.
Published 20 June 2020, 18:08 IST