Third year medical student J. Anusha Bhat is the first Mangaluru resident to return from war-torn Ukraine on March 3.
Third year medical student J. Anusha Bhat is the first Mangaluru resident to return from war-torn Ukraine on March 3.
Third year medical student J. Anusha Bhat is the first Mangaluru resident to return from war-torn Ukraine on March 3.
Speaking to reporters outside the Mangaluru International Airport, Ms Bhat said she and other students were confused by the lack of a clear advice on returning to India. He decided to stay back at the university as ‘the first exams for his medical course were underway’. He said the area they were living in was not affected by the war.
As the war broke out, he and other students contacted a travel agent who arranged a bus to the border town of Chernivtsi. From Chernivtsi, he made it to the Romanian border on the morning of February 27. “We walked about two kilometers to the border post.”
Ukrainian army personnel allow students to cross and enter Romania’s immigration checkpost. The students were kept in a shelter, one of two shelters arranged for stranded Indians in Romania. After two days, the Indian government arranged a flight from Bucharest (the capital of Romania) to Mumbai. “From Mumbai, I boarded a flight to Mangaluru today,” she said. “Our government was in constant touch with me from Bucharest to Mumbai.”
Overwhelmed by Bhat’s mother, who had come to the airport to pick up her daughter, Vidya thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, BJP state president and Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, MLA from Mangaluru City South. To help D. Vedavyas Kamath and Dakshina Kannada district administration to get their daughter home safely.
Mr. Kateel and Mr. Kamath had come to the airport to pick up Ms. Bhat, who had arrived from Mumbai at 1.05 pm.
Earlier, Mr Kateel and Higher Education Minister CN Ashwath Narayan criticized former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s statement that the central government has neglected to bring back stranded Indians safely. Both claimed that the Indian government is the only government working to bring back all their citizens stranded in Ukraine safely. He told reporters that Siddaramaiah and the Congress party were unnecessarily politicizing the issue without knowing the correct picture of the massive rescue operation being carried out by the central government.
When asked about continuing education of medical students returning to India from Ukraine, Mr. Narayan said Hindu It will be considered after listening to the students. “Our first priority now is to bring back the stranded Indians safely,” he said.
Asked about the demand for scrapping the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), Mr. Kateel said it would be discussed in Parliament.