Bengal brings back 35 students from Manipur

KOLKATA: The state brought back 35 more students from Imphal to Bengal in a special flight on Tuesday evening — 13 students from National Sports University; 14 from NIT; three from IIIT and five from RIMS, Manipur.
Government officials said at least 33 more Bengali students and many others from other states, including Manipur, were on their way to Kolkata and Guwahati till Wednesday night on 11 scheduled flights, all of which were booked to capacity. CM Mamata Banerjee had said on Monday the government was in the process of evacuating 68 more Bengali students stuck in Manipur. Of these, 35 reached Kolkata around 8pm on Tuesday.
“There was no special flight evacuating residents from Manipur on Wednesday, but there were ample scheduled flights operated by multiple airlines which continued to bring in students and professionals from Imphal airport. Arrangements are still in place for representatives of other states who are taking care of their respective people coming from Manipur,” said an airport official.
Among those who arrived in Kolkata from Manipur on Tuesday night were students from Darjeeling, Cooch Behar, Malda, West Bardhaman, Purulia, West Midnapore, Nadia, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas and Kolkata. “Transit accommodation and onward journeys have been arranged by the state,” an official said.
Many transit passengers are, however, preferring to stay at the airport for a few hours before taking the flights home. The Kolkata airport authorities have designated a separate seating area for them near gate 3C and are providing them with refreshments.
TOI had written on Wednesday how bedridden patients and newborns have been waiting at the overcrowded Imphal airport, eager to flee Manipur.
Patients with catheters just out of ICU, newborns with their mothers, pregnant women and bed-ridden cancer patients were among those thronging Imphal airport in the past few days to fly out of the state. While many of them have been flown out, some are yet to be booked on flights to Kolkata, which has been the transit hub for the last five days.