The Chief Minister, on his part, maintained that his own government had been closely monitoring their safety all through. “The State government had tried to buy them the air tickets but we could not owing to foreign exchange issues. We did not want to delay their return, so we asked them to pay up for the air tickets. We will now fully reimburse their airfare,’’ he told the media in Kochi.
The fracas comes in the wake of Mr. Modi announcing in an NDA poll campaign meeting in Kochi on Wednesday that the Union government had managed to safely evacuate the 29 people belonging to Kerala and Tamil Nadu from Libya and ensure their safe return.
FB post
Late evening on Thursday, Mr. Chandy posted on his Facebook page that he had been raising the issue of stranded Indians in Libya with the Ministry of External Affairs for the last 45 days, and had also written to Ms Swaraj seeking her attention.
“Pursuant to constant follow-ups, the Embassy of India in Libya functioning from Malta managed to ensure that the salaries of the stranded nurses were credited to their account by the Central Bank of Libya.”
Airfare reimbursement
Mr. Chandy’s post reiterated that his government would reimburse the airfare of the 17 Keralites who reached Kochi on Thursday.
“Over ninety families continue to be stranded in Libya, and the Kerala government is working with the Government of India to facilitate their safe return,’’ the Facebook post said.
