Indian students stranded in the strife-torn eastern provinces of Ukraine will be moved to safer locations in the nation’s capital, Kiev, according to information reaching here.
Speaking to The Hindu here on Tuesday, parents and representatives of the students back home said they had been informed by the Chief Minister’s Office that they had updated the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on the issue. The PMO, in turn, informed the State that train services would be arranged for evacuating the students from Lugansk State Medical University to the safety of Kiev. The students would also be provided with accommodation till a passage to India was arranged.
The students and parents on Monday had approached the Chief Minister and the Home Minister and also Central government authorities informing them of the plight of hundreds of students who were stranded in Ukraine.
There are more than 5,000 Indian students in Ukraine and nearly 1,200 of them are at Lugansk State Medical University. They were served with an evacuation notice and the students and their parents had sought government intervention for their safe passage.
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan has written to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj urging her to take urgent steps to bring back the stranded students.
A press note issued by the Opposition leader’s office in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday said that out of the 5,000 Indians stranded in Ukraine, around 1,000 were students from Kerala. The Ukraine government had issued an ultimatum to them to leave the country within 72 hours, he pointed out.
MP seeks actionSpecial Correspondent writes from Palakkad: M.B. Rajesh, Palakkad MP, urged the External Affairs Minister to take immediate steps to evacuate the stranded students. “The students were facing trouble in areas where curfew was clamped following clashes between pro-Russian separatists and government forces. As ATMs are not working, the students are unable to buy even food,’’ he said in an e-mail to the Minister.
