Jumbangla Desk : In the context of the fall of the government in the face of anti-discrimination student movement and popular uprising, the Indian government is not giving any other visa except medical or emergency visa; Among these, 5 visa application centers are working on a limited scale, so many medical visa aspirants are not getting appointments to submit visa applications. Patients and their relatives who are interested in getting treatment in India for various complex diseases are in a dilemma.
Visa
Akhtari Banu, a resident of Birldah in Puthia upazila of Rajshahi, was receiving treatment from Christian Medical College (CMC) Hospital in Chennai since 2017. From March 2023, he underwent four surgeries at that hospital. He had a sinus operation last July.
Akhtari Banu took a doctor's appointment on October 25 to go to India for a three-month follow-up. But the visa application has to be submitted. He failed to submit the fee by applying online at the Indian Visa Application Center in Rajshahi.
On the one hand, there is infection at the operation site, on the other hand, failure to submit the visa application - Akhtari Banu rushed to the office of the Assistant High Commissioner of India in Rajshahi without seeing any other way. But even that did not get the visa.
This woman said, "I have been treated there many times. I got the visa as well. But now I can't deposit the money.
“I am a cancer patient. Sinus operation was done three months ago. Before that another operation was done on the ovary. Now there is an infection at the site of the sinus operation. I don't know what to do."
Meanwhile, the Indian visa application centers were closed from July 18 when a curfew was imposed after the violence surrounding the movement. After that the centers continue to be closed with daily announcements.
After the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5 in the face of mass protests, the visa application centers were declared closed indefinitely in an unstable situation.
In an announcement two days after the fall of the government, the Indian Visa Application Center (IVAC) said, “Due to the volatile situation, all IVACs will remain closed until further notice. The next application date will be informed through SMS and the passport is requested to be collected on the next working day.”
A limited number of visa application centers were opened in the middle of that month. Then on August 16, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that the Indian High Commission in Dhaka will issue emergency and medical visas only to a limited extent until the situation normalizes.
After that, the visa aspirants protested at various centers including Jamuna Future Park to get back their passports. In such a situation, Yamuna Future Park and Satkhira visa application center were closed due to security reasons.
On September 3, 13 out of 16 visa application centers were opened to return passports only. From September 22, visa application centers in Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Khulna, Satkhira, Noakhali, Mymensingh, Barisal, Thakurgaon, Comilla, Rangpur and Rajshahi have started working on a limited basis.
On September 29, the Indian media The Print reported that the High Commission had returned 20,000 passports of Bangladeshi citizens due to 'protests and threats to the High Commission'.
Meanwhile, in an announcement on September 26, IVAC said, “IVACs at five locations in Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Sylhet and Khulna have started offering limited appointment slots to Bangladeshi nationals for urgent medical and student visas.
"Furthermore, these five IVACs (or IVACs) have also opened limited appointment slots in cases of emergency, where Bangladeshi students and staff need to travel to third countries and for which they already have visa appointments at foreign embassies in India."
"These services will remain limited until IVAC resumes its normal operations at a later date," the announcement said.
Many Bangladeshis seeking urgent medical visas are not getting the expected appointments due to limited services. Many patients like Akhtari Banu and their relatives are in trouble.
The treatment of the son-in-law of the girl who got married a year ago in his own condition is also added to the irony of Akhtari Banu of Rajshahi.
After a surgery in Bangladesh, the biopsy report revealed that his son-in-law also had cancer. He also wants to undergo the treatment of his second stage cancer at Vellore Christian Medical Center-CMC.
On October 24, despite applying for a visa with a doctor's appointment at CMC, he is not getting a chance to submit the fee.
Visa applicants say that like in other categories, medical visas in India are easy to get if the documents and hospital appointments are in order. But now the medical visa has also created a complicated situation.
Akhtari Banu's family members are demanding that the visa problem should be resolved quickly amid complications related to treatment.
Trisha Samira, a private organization worker, has been treating her mother suffering from liver cirrhosis at Apollo Hospital in Kolkata since March 2023.
He was supposed to go for a three-month follow-up in August, but he did not go because of the situation surrounding the student movement. After the visa process started for a short period of time, the application process started from the end of September.
Having applied online on October 1st now his struggle to get a slot to submit visa application; He tried for 11 days but did not get the desired schedule.
Highlighting the difficult situation, Trisha said, "Amma's liver did not accumulate water due to regular treatment. But now we can see that because of the lack of treatment.”
Trisha talks about not getting the doctor that the patient was shown to in Bangladesh. He is worried about moving away from one type of treatment and going to another type of treatment.
Bank officer Roksana Junthi's father, who is suffering from ampullary cancer, underwent a surgery in July. His physical condition is good some days and bad some days.
Junthi wants to take the 58-year-old father to Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai for further treatment. Accordingly, he also collected the invitation letter of the hospital.
But after the start of the visa process in September in a small scale, despite applying online, the application submission schedule is still not available.
Junthi's father is now admitted in a hospital in Dhaka due to his deteriorating physical condition. Waiting for the visa application submission schedule.
"I have applied several times," Junthi told bdnews24.com citing repeated attempts and failures. Application deadline ends, but not getting slot.
"On the other hand, father stays out for a while, and his body gets worse; Need to be taken to hospital. I don't understand what will happen."
Bdnews24.com tried to contact the Indian High Commission to discuss the patient crisis, but received no official response.
At the end of last September, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Session, the issue of visa complications came up in the meeting of Foreign Affairs Minister Touhid Hossain with Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar.
Later the advisor said, “I talked a little about the visa. Many of those who are giving visas have gone to India. Their facilities are not fully developed. We hope it will be operational in a few days. Now only health visa is being given.
"Hopefully they will be able to start issuing visas very soon, maybe not too long."
According to The Print on September 30, India issued about 1.6 lakh visas to Bangladeshis in 2023, citing Indian government data. Of these, 4.5 lakh were medical visas.
Till August this year, 8 lakh visas were issued to Bangladeshis in 15 categories. Out of which medical visa was 2 lakh.
The trend of visiting India for tourism and business as well as medical treatment has steadily increased over the past years. There is also criticism of this tendency to go to India even though the country now has all kinds of medical facilities.
Vimrule Bite Treatment
However, those who choose India for treatment, cite a crisis of trust in hospitals and doctors in Bangladesh and getting better services at a relatively low cost in India.
Source: bdnews24.com
