46 MP students stranded in Ukraine safe, but exact numbers not known
Darpan News Desk IANS, 25 Feb, 2022 01:11 PM
Bhopal, Feb 25 (IANS) The Madhya Pradesh government said on Friday that 46 students from the state who registered with the Chief Minister's helpline are safe in Ukraine. However, it is not known exactly how many students from the state are stranded in the war-hit country.
IANS contacted various officials in different departments of the state government to know the exact number of students from the state stranded in Ukraine, but no concrete information was received on the same.
A senior official in the medical education department said the department does have information on the number of students studying in overseas countries.
The students go to foreign countries to study as per the contract between them and the respective universities, an official said.
"The department has no role in sending students to overseas countries. Instead, they tie up directly with the universities and therefore, the department has no idea about it," said a senior official in the medical education department.
Another official said the department carries information of only those students who go to foreign countries for study after receiving a scholarship from the state government.
As per the home department, so far, 46 students stranded in Ukraine have contacted them or have registered their complaints with the Chief Minister's helpline and they are safe.
However, as per sources, over 60 medical students are in Ukraine from Indore alone.
Additional Chief Secretary (Home), Rajesh Rajora, informed on Thursday that among the students who have registered with the CM's helpline -- nine are from Bhopal, three each from Indore and Raisen, four each from Dhar, Ujjain and Dewas, two each from Barwani and Sehore and one each from Jabalpur, Gwalior, Chhindwara, Morena, Narmadapuram, Dindori, Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur, Khargone, Jhabua, Barwani, Sagar, Balaghat, Ratlam and Burhanpur.
"They all are safe in Ukraine and have been asked to follow the instructions of the Indian Embassy there. They have also been provided with call centre numbers, the Embassy's email id and other contact details," Rajora told the media.
The Biden administration has kept in place travel restrictions that have severely curtailed international trips to the U.S., citing the spread of the delta variant of the virus. Under the rules, non-U.S. residents who have been to China, the European Schengen area, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, South Africa and India in the prior 14 days are prohibited from entering the U.S.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control last week warned the Delta variant of the virus is so contagious, vaccinated people who do get infected could be just as big a risk to others as people who aren't vaccinated.
The new requirement, which will be phased in over several weeks in August and September, is the most aggressive step the city has taken yet to curb a surge in cases caused by the delta variant.
The findings have the potential to upend past thinking about how the disease is spread. Previously, vaccinated people who got infected were thought to have low levels of virus and to be unlikely to pass it to others. But the new data shows that is not the case with the delta variant.
President Joe Biden is calling on states and local governments to join those that are already handing out dollars for shots. New York, the nation's biggest city, started doling out $100 awards on Friday.
