CM: 150 Haryana residents stranded in Ukraine, effort on to evacuate them

Khattar said, “We are making efforts so that they also reach the (Ukraine) borders. Nearly 500 others have already reached near the (Ukraine) borders. I am hopeful that soon people from Haryana and other states of the country will return soon.”

While informing about the current situation, the CM said that out of a total of 1701 Haryana residents who were stuck in war-hit Ukraine, as many as 663 had returned to the state (Haryana) till now, while some others are on the way (to India). The Chief Minister said that on Thursday, nine students from Ukraine reached Mumbai airport. “Arrangements have been made to provide air travel tickets to them from Mumbai to Delhi, along with a cash amount of Rs 1000 being provided to each of them on behalf of the Haryana government. Besides this, help desks have been set up in Mumbai, Delhi, Chandigarh, and Faridabad,” he added.

The Chief Minister said that all Deputy Commissioners have been directed to contact the families of such students at a personal level. “Faridabad Divisional Commissioner has been made the nodal officer.”

Meanwhile, Khattar also said that tractors should not be included in the policy issued by the Central Government to ban diesel vehicles and petrol vehicles older than 10 and 15 years respectively in the National Capital Region.

“Talks will be held with the Central Government and we will find a workaround to resolve this issue. Last time also, we had got tractors excluded from the NGT Policy,” Khattar said.

Replying to another question, the Chief Minister said that names of people involved in the drugs trade and corruption are often taken in the House by members, but they always fail to give concrete evidence for the same. “Last time, we took this lightly. But this time a breach of privilege motion will be brought against
such MLAs through Parliamentary Affairs Minister for irresponsible statements,” said the CM.

When asked pensions through Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP), the Chief Minister said that the pension of no one has not been stopped through PPP. He claimed that the government, rather, had identified about 22,000 more people who were not getting their pensions due to some reasons. “Work for data verification of such people is being done,” he added. “Anyone found eligible will get the pension and no one will be stopped from getting their entitlement.”

Responding to another question, the Chief Minister said that a different timeline has been prescribed for the people living in different states to get the domicile certificate issued there. “Haryana government has fixed this timeline for five years. After all, we are all Indians,” he added.

Haryana helpdesk receives 9 students at Mumbai airport

The helpdesk set up by the Haryana government at the Mumbai airport received nine students from the state Thursday as they returned from Ukraine. The officers deputed at the helpdesk provided Rs 1,000 cash to all the returnees and air tickets to Delhi.

Students who reached Mumbai included Vaibhav from Ambala, Jatin from Rohtak, Vipul Sharma from Faridabad, Isha from Rohtak, Himanshu from Hisar, Meeraj Ahmed from Gurgaon, Ajay Kumar Sharma from Mahendragarh, Garima Arora and Suman Arora from Fatehabad.

“As per the information received from the helpdesk, all the students are hale and hearty. In view of the Ukraine crisis, Haryana government has set up helpdesks at Delhi and Mumbai airports to help the students. Through the helpdesk, the students are being assisted to safely reach their homes. Besides this, the government has appointed Sanjay Joon as nodal officer to help the residents and students of Haryana stuck in Ukraine. At the district level, the Deputy Commissioner will be the nodal officer,” a government spokesperson said. “Chief Minister is constantly taking updates from the officials regarding the children stuck in Ukraine and is giving them required directions. Besides this, the Chief Minister is also in constant touch with the Ministry of External Affairs”, the spokesperson added. CM Manohar Lal Khattar said, “All Haryana students stuck in Ukraine will be brought back safely and they will not be allowed to face any kind of difficulty.”

Haryana’s Home Minister Anil Vij added, “Government is making every effort to evacuate Indian nationals from Ukraine. So far, several citizens have been evacuated and brought back to the country safely. Ishika Bhutani, a student from Ambala Cantonment, Kachha Bazar, who returned safely from Ukraine on Thursday, met me at my residence and expressed gratitude.”

Ishika’s father, Vinay Bhutani, had earlier appealed to Anil Vij a few days ago to bring back his daughter safely.

Ishika, an MBBS student, said that she was studying in Vinnitsa in Ukraine. She added, “A bus was provided by the college for Romania border. Arrangements were
made by the Government of India at the Romania border. I stayed at a shelter home in Bucharest for two days and was then brought to the country on the night of March 1.”