Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said on Monday, 20 April, that five more states are likely to arrange for the return of their students who are currently stranded in Rajasthan’s Kota. Last week, the Uttar Pradesh government had sent 250 buses to bring back the students amid the nationwide lockdown owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
During a media briefing via video-conferencing, Gehlot said that Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Assam are mulling over getting their students back from Kota. “All the students are aged between 16-23, and they are highly disturbed. Uttar Pradesh has already taken the students home, Madhya Pradesh is still considering. Chhattisgarh has already agreed and I have spoken to the chief ministers of Bengal and Assam,” the Rajasthan CM said.
Gehlot also added that despite the restrictions on inter-state travel, the chief secretary had convinced the central authorities to agree to this.
On Sunday, 19 April, thirty students, who were brought to Uttar Pradesh from Kota in buses sent by the state government, reached their homes amid the nationwide lockdown.
They reached Muzaffarnagar in the evening and were sent to home quarantine, District Magistrate Amit Singh said.
The students underwent check-ups for COVID-19 after reaching the state, he said.
The Uttar Pradesh government had sent 250 buses to the Rajasthan state on Friday to bring the students who were preparing for engineering and medical competitive exams.
Earlier, the stranded students had taken to social media to appeal to PM Narendra Modi and other chief ministers to send them back home. They had been living in hostels where basic amenities like food, milk, water and electricity are available.
DM said, ‘Must Stay Indoors’
On 14 April, a day before the lockdown was extended, the Kota administration had cancelled special permits that were earlier issued to students wanting to go back to their home states. The decision was made after the Bihar government raised objections over the movement of students from Kota to the state. A lot of the students in Kota are from Bihar.
The Kota DM had insisted that it is important no one travels during the lockdown. The Kota district had reported 84 positive cases of coronavirus at 9:00 am on 16 April.
(With inputs from PTI)
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