GUWAHATI, March 20 - The State government today announced an immediate assistance of $ 2,000 for people from the State who are stranded abroad due to communication shutdown in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the relief will be directly transferred to the accounts of the travellers stranded abroad.
The State government will also pursue with the concerned embassies matters related to expiry of visa and passport of such stranded travellers.
�There are many people from the State who have been stranded outside the country as travel links have been snapped due to the coronavirus pandemic. We shall be giving out an email from Sunday for such people to contact us,� Sarma told a press conference.
�If this situation continues any further, we will have to deal with it then,� he said.
The assistance would be for people from the State who had travelled in the last 30 days and are not permanent workers or settlers in other countries, the minister clarified.
He said, �It will be for such people who had gone of some work or seminar or even tourists, and are unable to return. It won�t be for people working there, or even students or scholars who are already staying there.�
