TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ China is delaying grant of clearance to India’s proposal to send an Indian Air Force flight to carry relief material for people affected by coronavirus in the neighbouring country and bring back Indians from its city of Wuhan, official sources said Saturday.
India was to send a C-17 military transport aircraft to Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, on February 20 but the plane could not take off as permission was not granted for the flight. “China is deliberately delaying grant of clearance for the evacuation flight,” a high-level source said.
The aircraft was to carry a large consignment of medical supplies to China and bring back more Indians from Wuhan. Sources said the Chinese side continued to maintain that there was no delay in granting permission for the flight to go, but “inexplicably” the clearance has not been given.
In a letter to President Xi Jinping earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed India’s solidarity to the people and government of China in meeting the challenge of the coronavirus outbreak and offered to provide assistance to the country.
