The Indian Panorama

Tag: JFK

  • A Misnomer Causes Confusion

    A Misnomer Causes Confusion

    India’s  10- Year Multiple Entry Visa is wrongly termed as Tourist Visa

    Prem Bhandari recommends entry visa on departure (E-VoD)

    I.S. Saluja

    My friend Prem Bhandari who is Chairman, Jaipur Foot USA , was at JFK airport in New York on December 2, 2020  where he is a regular visitor to find for himself how NRI’s are being taken care of. Ever Since the government of India launched the Vande Bharat Mission to help stranded Indians to get back to India, Mr. Bhandari has been a regular visitor to extend a helping hand to travelers and Air India. In fact, he led from the front and exhibited rare courage in what he was doing for community at a time when most of us took refuge within the safe four walls of our homes. Undeterred by the raging pandemic, he was out at the airport day after days, helping people.

    On December 2, he was, as usual visiting JFK to see if travelers were receiving proper attention of airline officials when   he came across 6 persons who told him they were not allowed to board an Air India flight to India. One of them was a lady with 2 toddlers. Mr. Bhandari, a man well known in India and USA, particularly in New York, as a committed  social activist and do-gooder was upset to find the lady in distress for not being able to board the flight.

    Mr. Bhandari who has often raised  issues impacting Indian Americans , among others, tried to get at the bottom of the situation. He spoke with the passengers who were denied travel. He spoke with Air India staff present at the JFK airport.

    Prem Bhandari at JFK, New York with travelers he helped during Vande Bharat Mission in May 2020

    Mr. Bhandari said  the lady was traveling in an emergency to be with her people in India.  She was not going for tourism. It was under compelling circumstances that she was going with the two toddlers, aged  to India, in extreme weather and under dangerous COVID-19 conditions. Nobody goes to India these days for tourism, anyway. They all travel only driven by a desire to see a family member who may be sick, or to be with family to mourn the loss of a loved one. So it was with the lady.

    The Air India people at JFK told the lady  to visit the Consulate in New York to get an emergency visa for the kids. Now, this lady who has come from outside New York will need to hire a cab and go to the Indian Consulate in Midtown Manhattan. Pay for the cab. She may not get the emergency visa then and there. She may have to wait for a day. She will need a hotel room for which she will have to pay. If she is lucky, and if there are no intervening holidays, she gets the visa on the next day. Now the flight. She has to wait  until she can be accommodated in the next available flight, subject of course to availability of seats. And when finally, the seats are available, she has to pay an extra amount for the change in her flight schedule. She does it. She settles the hotel bill for all these days of stay.

    The next scene now. The lady with two toddlers in tow reaches Delhi. Now she is to go to a different destination in India. She has missed the flight originally booked. Her tickets are canceled. She has to rebook a flight and pay for it, besides waiting, may be, for a day or two to get seats. She spends again, another few hundred dollars on buying tickets and for stay in a hotel. What a colossal loss of time and money!, one may say. No, friends, it is much more than that. It is a stressful experience which may make one sick. It is only loss of time, money, inconvenience, stress, it is a frightening threat of being exposed to rampaging COVID-19.

    Whose fault is it? Government officials will say the travel advisory is posted on website of each embassy and consulate, and travelers should look into guidelines before undertaking travel. Well, nobody can dispute this claim. All embassy and consulate websites carry the advisory.

    A travelers’ advisory well publicized in print, electronic and social media can prove educative for travelers

    The Indian Panorama asked Mr. Bhandari for his comment, because he was much upset to see  the plight of the stranded travelers.

    Mr. Bhandari concluded that the villain of the piece was a wrong term used for 10-Year Multiple Entry Visa. It is a misnomer to call this visa a Tourist Visa.

    One can understand the constraint of the airline,  which did not permit  boarding to any tourist, because tourist visa has been cancelled in the wake of COVID-19.

    In October this year, the Indian government had decided to restore with immediate effect the validity of all existing visas, except electronic, tourist and medical category visas, almost eight months after their suspension following the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent imposition of a nationwide lockdown.

    Mr. Bhandari explained to The Indian Panorama that almost 80% Indians do not apply for OCI card for children. They feel quite comfortable with the 10-Year Multiple Entry Visa  which is wrongly termed as Tourist Visa.  The denial to board the flight arose out of the fact that the two kids had “Tourist Visa”. And because, government of India had canceled the Tourist Visa , as stated above, the kids could not be allowed to board the flight.

    Mr. Bhandari had enough reason to sympathize with those denied boarding a flight to India, and at the same time think deep how the situation could be rectified. The first thing he did immediately was to call concerned officials in India government in Delhi. He called the Foreign Secretary Mr. Harsha Vardhan Shringla, Mr. Ajay Bhalla, the Home Secretary, and Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Khasola, and apprised them of the suffering of the passengers he had met at the airport. Each one of them appeared to sympathize with the harassed passengers, and assured Mr. Bhandari that a way will be found to remedy the situation. Mr. Bhandari told The Indian Panorama that he was very happy to see the positive attitude of the officials, and that he is grateful to them.

    Mr. Bhandari followed up with an identical letter to each one of them, drawing their attention to the problem, and suggesting immediate solutions.

    In his letter, Mr. Bhandari pointed out that the core of  “ the issue is lack of information and deficiency in educating travelers on visa eligibility (visa issued prior to March 12, 2020 are ineligible)”.

    His suggestions to all three Secretaries mentioned above are given below:-

    1. All airlines flying into India under the air-bubble arrangement should proactively verify travelers with foreign passports have eligible visas at time of ticket booking
    2. Key websites in this air-bubble program, namely Air Suvidha, Air India, United Airlines, MoCA, MHA, BOI.gov, MEA, all Consulates, Indianvisa.gov etc. must advertise eligible and ineligible visas
    3. MoCA & AI have been very active in advertising flight schedules in social media. Similarly, it is imperative that the visa eligibility is broadly advertised on the same social platforms.

    As a more considered solution to ease a broad swath of travelers all over the world facing similar situation,  I propose the following , Mr. Bhandari wrote:-

    1. Any Indian origin person with either of parents with Indian passport/PIO/OCI card be allowed to travel with their US born minor sons/daughter under the age of 14 with any unexpired visa obtained anytime without applying emergency visa at consulate. As per US federal law, children under 14 cannot be left alone without their legal custodians, which in almost all cases are their parents.

    1. Likewise, all unexpired visas issued in the past should be restored to avoid unnecessary burden as well as expenses of obtaining the emergency visa. It is a fallacy to assume anyone will like to travel to India for tourism during Corona pandemic. This step will alleviate workload on embassy staff, smoothen out travel process for global diaspora and will generate goodwill for the country.

    1.  In case it is difficult to carry out above suggested measures, it may be explored to either grant Emergency Visa on Departure (E-VoD) on the line of Visa on arrival OR restore immediate e-Visa process for immediate approval online – travelers can be able to do so digitally from the airport. This small gesture will win heart of the NRI community not only from US but from all over the World.

     

     

     

     

  • Passengers hail Team Air India at JFK

    Passengers hail Team Air India at JFK

    Prakash M Swamy (Who traveled on AI-102 to Delhi)

    NEW YORK (TIP): Tormented by snow storm and suffering from nature’s fury with a delayed flight for over 12 hours, India-bound passengers of Air India 102 to New Delhi en route to Mumbai from JFK Airport on Saturday found a caring and consoling soul in Vandana Sharma, Regional Manager (Americas) of Air India.

    Sharma not only was sitting with the passengers throughout the agony communicating with the top officials of the Port Authority of NY-NJ, Air India headquarter and Ministry of Civil Aviation but ensured that the passengers were provided food and water. More than that, her soothing words and ever-smiling face in the face of adversity endeared her to the hearts of the passengers.

    The unprecedented snow storm uprooted the schedules of Air India and caused untold suffering and hardship to passengers. The incoming flight from New Delhi Air India 101 that landed in JFK at 6:30 am on Saturday could not be brought to the gate. Passengers were forced to sit in the aircraft for over four hours after arrival. When there were no indications of getting a gate at terminal to disembark, Air India was forced to off-load the passengers and crew on the taxi-way in the cold subzero temperatures and bring them by bus to the terminal. Their agony did not end there. The baggage could not be taken out from the aircraft.

    As a result of this and other contributing factors, the outbound aircraft was delayed for over 12 hours. The stranded passengers, though cursing their fate and timing of their travel, appreciated the commitment of the national career and cooperated with the airline staff. But the entire Air India team decided to stay put and stayed with the passengers for well over 72 hours without any rest.

    There were anxious passengers asking questions repeatedly about their connecting flight, baggage claim and medical attention. Many were attending weddings back home and were upset to miss the auspicious occasions. One elderly lady sobbed, and Sharma went and hugged her and consoled her saying that she would ensure her safe departure and instruct Air India staff at Delhi airport to assist her to her destination.

    A couple of young techies probed Sharma the reason for delay and wondered why Air India could not convince the Port Authority to expedite allotment of bay. She answered all their queries with conviction and smile. She was there to assist every single passenger and made them feel that the national career would not abandon them and be with them in the time of crisis.

    The entire team stayed at the airport for the past four days surmounting the insurmountable. The JFK Terminal 4 Airport Authorities did not help Air India. None of the 360 plus passengers shouted or abused AI as they are aware the delays and cancellations are due to nature’s fury and human beings are helpless.

    Problems hit Air India from all directions from denial of bay by JFK Terminal 4 Airport Authorities, to pipes bursting in the baggage hold area, and even oxygen pressure dropping as the arriving aircraft stood in extremely cold weather of minus 30 degrees in open for the whole day. The AI ground handling personnel could not take out the baggage from the incoming aircraft as aircraft did not come to gate. Equipment to get additional containers from warehouse was frozen.

    Since Thursday’s AI 102 was cancelled, both Thursdays and Fridays flights left on Friday, one after the other. The AI staff had to worry about security, crew fatigue, piling baggage, ordering food at right time, dealing with effects of bursting hot water pipes in baggage holds, frozen pipes for cleaning lavatories, lack of space for passengers to sit in the airport as the entire airport was swarmed with passengers.

    Both the Air India staff and passengers were clueless as no one knew when the JFK Terminal 4 Airport Authorities would give clearance for departure gate. The Air India aircraft finally came to the gate by 9.00 PM. Passengers rejoiced to see the aircraft finally come to gate.

    The entire Air India team right from Airport Manager Ashok Gupta, to Manager New York Anji, and the Dy. APM Amarjit Singh, Duty Manager Ms. Mildred Thivalapil pitched in and looked after passengers and all that had to be done.  At hand also was AI Airport Security Manager Ajit Manvatkar who supervised the security arrangements of passengers and also ensured that the aircraft is safe and secured for travel. Vandana and Manvatkar saw off every single passenger standing near the door of the aircraft before they moved to other tasks at hand.

     “We always blame Air India for the alleged poor service, but no one appreciates when they perform exceedingly well in times of crisis,” said Neil Patel traveling to Surat. When reached for comments Vandana said she was simply doing her job to ensure that all the passengers were safe in the toughest times and reach their destinations with minimum difficulties.  “Air India always treats passengers like an extended family and this is least we can do to make them feel at home in times of adverse nature’s fury,” she said with a justifiable pride on her face having accomplished the impossible.