Stranded in Bangladesh since the coronavirus-induced lockdown in March, a few thousand Indians from Bengal have begun to come home in batches from this week after the Union home ministry approved their entry through land border check posts.
A group of some 25 Indian citizens, who hail from the districts of Nadia and North 24-Parganas, entered the country through Petrapole on Wednesday, ending their dire distress of the last few months.
Bangladesh authorities allowed them to cross the border after the Indian nationals furnished their negative Covid-19 test reports. They were also examined by Indian authorities at the immigration centre before their entry to India.
Ashanur Begum Biswas, 50, of Aranghata, and Feli Bewa, 55, of Banpur in Nadia, beamed on reaching Indian soil in Petrapole.
Home after five months, Biswas, an epileptic who also has a kidney disorder, broke down in tears to see son Saibur at Petropole.
Those who returned home said that last month the Indian High Commission in Dhaka contacted them and asked them to choose between Petrapole and Phulbari as their convenient check post to come home.
Stranded Indians with cancer, epilepsy, mental disorders and kidney troubles were in bigger trouble as the validity of their prescriptions expired and they could not buy medicines.
Around 400 Indians from Malda are stranded in Bangladesh.
The affluent ones have taken a flight to Delhi, paying over Rs 50,000 for airfare, and then spent two weeks of quarantine in Delhi before returning home.
Zakir Husain, a retired bank manager from Malda’s English Bazar, who was stranded in Bholaghat area of Champai-Nawabganj of Bangladesh, came home last week. “I could return because I could afford the airfare. But hundreds from my district are in acute distress close to Benapole. Many are forced to beg to survive.”