Union ministers to visit Ukraine's neighbouring countries to coordinate evacuation of Indians
Premium- The four Union ministers are Jyotiraditya Scindia, Hardeep Singh Puri, Kiren Rijiju and VK Singh
NEW DELHI : In a bid to pace up the evacuation efforts of Indian citizens and students out of Ukraine with more coordination, Centre has decided to send four union ministers to its neighbouring countries as special envoys, government sources said.
According to sources cited above, the four Union minister are Minister for Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister for Law and Justice, Kiren Rijiju and Minister of State for Civil Aviation, V.K. Singh.
Scindia will look at the evacuation in Romania and Moldova, while Rijiju will go to Slovakia, they said. Hardeep Singh Puri will go to Hungary and V.K. Singh will be at Poland to manage the evacuation.
As Ukraine is under Russian invasion and the Ukrainian air space has been closed, Indian students are being evacuated through Ukraine's neighbouring countries including, Romania and Hungary.
The decision to send the ministers was taken in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.
Prime Minister Modi during his interactions with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week raised concerns of the safety and security of Indian citizens in Ukraine amid the escalating war.
Although around 2,000 Indians have been brought back, according to the government, thousands more are still stuck at the borders and also in key cities of Kyiv and Kharkiv.
In another major development, Centre has also eased Covid norms for Indian returning from there. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's revised international travel advisory, Indians do not a negative RT-PCR test report and vaccination certificate to board a flight back to India. The evacuated Indians have also been exempted from uploading documents before departure on Air Suvidha portal.
Ukraine is a major destination for medical students from India as state-run universities there are known to provide quality education at low cost. As per the Ukraine Ministry of Education and Science, there are around 18,095 Indian students in India and in the year 2020, 24% of its overseas students were from India.
State governments have also urged the Centre to speed up the evacuation process. Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has written a letter to Prime Minister Modi seeking speedy and safe return of the Indian students stuck in Ukraine.
A statement from the state government on Monday said that Gehlot has suggested that the Centre should immediately contact the Government of Ukraine so that Indian students can get a safe route to India through Poland and Romania.
Mentioning a telephonic conversation with an Indian student Ajay Singh living in Ukraine, Gehlot told Modi that Indian students are not getting a safe route from Poland and Romania to leave together from Ukraine.
On Sunday, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wrote to the Prime Minister requesting an urgent intervention for Indian students stranded in Ukraine. Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi too last week sought the Prime Minister’s intervention for the rescue and safe return of Indians, including those from Punjab, stuck in Ukraine.
Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik took to Twitter to welcome Odia students from the war-torn country. "Hearty welcome to the Odia students who are back to India. I am so relieved that you have returned safely from the war-torn #Ukraine. We are working on the safe return of other students and workers from #Odisha, stranded in Ukraine," Patnaik tweeted.
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