Rs 44 crore spent to assist Indian citizens abroad in view of COVID-19: Govt

The government on Friday said it spent Rs 44 crore in assisting Indian citizens abroad in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Replying to a question in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said the amount has been spent from the Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF).

"Since the spread of COVID-19 pandemic till October, the government of India has spent approximately Rs 44 crores from the Indian Community Welfare Fund,” he said in his written reply.

Muraleedharan was answering a question on whether the government has assisted Indians in distress abroad using the ICWF in view of the pandemic.

To a separate question, Muraleedharan said an estimated 1.35 crore Indian nationals were residing in various countries, including 88 lakh in the Gulf region.

In response to another question on whether there was a delay in securing the approval from the World Health Organization (WHO) for the Covaxin vaccine, the minister said it is based on a technical process.

"The grant of Emergency Use Listing (EUL) by the WHO is a technical process which is undertaken by independent experts appointed by the WHO,” he said.

Muraleedharan said the process involves submission of necessary data by the concerned vaccine manufacturing company and its analysis and evaluation by the WHO experts.

Muraleedharan also said that there is no multilaterally agreed upon the requirement of vaccination for travel purposes.

"International travel can also be undertaken with negative RT-PCR and quarantine related health protocols to a large number of countries. ”

"Further, different countries have different requirements for travel, including nature of passports, type of visas, the purpose of travel, duration of stay etc,” he said.

The minister said these are sovereign decisions of foreign countries.

"Travels including by VIPs are in accordance with the prescribed protocols of the countries concerned,” he added.