British nun allowed to stay in India.

(July 27, 2011) Indian authorities have withdrawn an expulsion order against a British nun and allowed her to stay indefinitely, just hours before she was supposed to leave the country as her visa had expired. Federal Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram on Tuesday, instructed ministry officials to allow the 63-year-old Monfort missionary nun , Sr. Jacqueline Jean McEwan , to stay in India for as long as she wants. The minister said the expulsion order was “a mistake.” Sr. McEwan, a trained nurse, arrived in India in 1982 as a medical volunteer. Since then, she has worked among leprosy patients at the Sumanahalli center in Bangalore, Karnataka State. Sr. McEwan thanked the government for allowing her to stay in India. “I can continue nursing my patients and help them lead a dignified life,” said the nun popularly known as Mother Teresa of Sumanahalli. Claretian Father George Kannanthanam, Sumanahalli’s director, also expressed his happiness at the latest developments.