Hardeep Singh Puri, Gen VK Singh & Kiren Rijiju leave for Europe to oversee evacuations
Darpan News Desk IANS, 01 Mar, 2022 06:36 PM
New Delhi, March 1 (IANS) Union Ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and Gen VK Singh (Retd) on Tuesday flew to Budapest and Warsaw respectively to oversee the evacuation of Indian nationals stranded in Ukraine.
Taking to Twitter Puri said, "All set to bring back our young students back home safely. Enroute to #Budapest with a refuelling stop in Istanbul with the ever efficient 6E boys & girls."
Puri left by a special flight of IndiGo Airlines for the evacuation of Indian nationals stuck in Ukraine via Budapest. Union Minister General V.K. Singh is on his way to Poland to energize the government's efforts to facilitate Indians stranded on the Ukrainian side of the Polish border. The Indian Ambassador to Poland is also present near the Polish border points to personally direct the evacuation efforts.
Taking to Twitter Gen Singh said, "Stay where you are, don't move until you are told, and don't panic. Your country will safely evacuate you. Jai Hind. #General_In_Poland.""My message to all parents, guardians and family members, Your kids will be back with you soon," Singh said in his other tweet message.
While leaving for Slovakia, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju said, "Thank you @flyspicejet for joining the efforts to evacuate our fellow Indians especially students who are facing huge difficulties due to war in #Ukraine." PM @narendramodi Ji has given clear instructions to evacuate every Indian back home safely, he added in his tweet message. He also thanked SpiceJet for operating a special flight for Slovakia to evacuate the Indian nationals in Ukraine via the Slovakia border.
On February 28 the government, in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to send four senior Union Ministers -- Hardeep Singh Puri, Gen VK Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Kiren Rijiju -- to the countries neighbouring war- torn Ukraine to oversee the evacuation of Indian nationals under 'Operation Ganga'.
Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia is leaving for Romania and Moldova, Kiren Rijiju for Slovakia, Hardeep Singh Puri is enroute to Hungary and Gen V.K. Singh (Retd) for Poland to oversee the evacuations.
On Monday, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar spoke to his Polish counterpart to discuss the evacuation efforts while Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Tuesday spoke to the Ambassadors of Russia and Ukraine to reiterate the demand for the safety of Indian nationals who are still in Kharkiv and cities in other conflict zones.
On Tuesday, the Indian Embassy in Kyiv asked all Indians to leave as soon as possible as the situation in the capital city of Ukraine is getting worse. On Monday, the weekend curfew was lifted in Kyiv and the Indian Embassy advised all students to make their way to the railway station for onward journey to the western parts. The Embassy officials were present at the railway station to facilitate and a large number of students were able to board the trains.
To avoid overcrowding and a long waiting time and ease pressure at the border points, the External Affairs Ministry's teams and the Embassy are trying to arrange shelter in nearby towns, particularly Uzhhorod near the Hungary border, Indian officials said.
High drama was witnessed on Thursday after 125 of 179 international passengers, who arrived at Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport Rajasansi, near here, from Italy, in an Air India flight tested positive on arrival. The Covid passengers were asked to quarantine in local hospital as per the guidelines of the government.
On Wednesday, The Prime Minister's rally in Ferozepur had to be cancelled due to a security lapse after some protesters blocked a route and forced his convoy to spend about 20 minutes on a flyover. The Prime Minister was enroute the National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala when the incident happened.
Although the department has all infrastructural needs in place to deal with the large number of cases expected in case of the third wave becoming a reality, he also appealed to the people to get themselves fully vaccinated against the virus as it is the most potent tool to avoid Covid-19.
Regretting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to cancel his scheduled visit to Ferozepur midway, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said on Wednesday that there was no security lapse that led to the cancellation of the Prime Ministers visit to the bordering town.
Holding the Punjab government squarely responsible for the "gross security lapse" during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Punjab, that eventually led to cancellation of all his programmes, former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday demanded dismissal of the government and imposition of President's rule.
With the spike in Covid-19 cases, Punjab on Tuesday imposed statewide night curfew daily from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. and ordered closure of all educational institutions till January 15.
