India sets up evacuation camps on Ukraine's borders with Poland, Romania, Hungary
Darpan News Desk IANS, 25 Feb, 2022 02:37 PM
New Delhi, Feb 25 (IANS) India has set up camps on Ukraine's borders touching Poland, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia for evacuation of stranded nationals from the war-hit east European nation.
With Ukraine closing its airspace after Russia launched a military operation in the country on Thursday, the Indian Embassy in Kiev has asked the Indian nationals to start moving towards the bordering areas so that they can be evacuated safely.
The Embassy issued two advisories urging Indian nationals to start moving towards the country's western border check-posts.
In the first advisory, the Embassy stated: "Indian nationals arriving at the Poland-Ukraine border by public conveyance, i.e., by bus or taxi, are advised to make for the Shehyni-Medyka border crossing, not the Krakowiec crossing."
The Embassy stated that the Polish government is allowing people to cross the border on foot only through the Shehyni-Medyka border point.
The Krakowiec crossing is only for persons travelling in their own vehicles.
The Embassy also gave a list of the officials deployed at the bordering areas with Poland -- Pankaj Garg (+48660460815) is stationed at the Shehyni-Medyka border crossing.
The Embassy office at the Krakowiec crossing is headed by Shubham Kumar (+48881551271). The liaison office in Lviv is operational and is managed by Mira Berezovska (+380679335064) and Vivek Kumar (+48881551273, from late on Friday).
"Indians crossing into Poland may kindly register their details by processing their requests for seats in the repatriation flights which will be arranged shortly," it stated.
In the second advisory, the Embassy said that it is working to establish evacuation routes from Romania and Hungary.
"At present, teams are getting in place at the Chop-Zahony Hungarian border near Uzhhorod Porubne-Siret, and Romanian border near Chernivtsi," the Embassy stated.
Indian nationals, especially students, living closest to the above border check-posts have been advised to depart first in an organised manner, in coordination with teams from the Ministry of External Affairs, to actualise this option.
"Once the above routes are operational, Indian nationals travelling by their own arrangements for transport would be advised to proceed to the above border check-points, and remain in touch with the helpline numbers set up at the respective check-points for facilitation through the border," the Embassy stated.
Students have been advised to remain in touch with student contractors for orderly movement.
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.
