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Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Saturday that the government had no problems in allowing Indians to travel overseas, given that the destination countries were accepting foreign incoming passengers. "We have no problems with people having valid documents flying out of India to countries which are allowing foreigners to enter," Puri said in a tweet, barely a few hours after the Centre announced another phase of lockdown beginning June and slated to last till June 30.
Restrictions on inter-state movement of passenger and goods have been all but scrapped during Lockdown 5.0, with the final call resting with state authorities. Only containment zones will continue to have the restrictions in place, as per the order issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
The guidelines on Lockdown 5.0 have stated that an informed call on resuming international flights will be take in due course of time, even as domestic flight operations across the country have nearly limped back to normalcy.
Puri noted that he was being approached by a number of persons holding valid residency permits of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) wanting to return to the Gulf country. "It is up to the local authorities there to take a call on this," he said, adding that there were "restrictions in place on entry of foreign citizens in the UAE and a few other countries at present."
