Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi receiving students evacuated from Ukraine, in New Delhi on March 03, 2022.
By Shankar Raj*
About 10,800 Indians brought back by special flights from Ukraine’s neighbouring countries
Bengaluru/New Delhi: A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Karnataka legislator Arvind Bellad from Hubballi-Dharwad today raked up a controversy, making a statement seen to be insensitive towards a family in mourning. He said that since the coffin containing the mortal remains of Naveen SG, the 21-year-old medico who was killed in Kharkiv in Ukraine on Tuesday, March 1, 2022, would occupy 10-12 seats in an aircraft, it will have to wait.
Speaking to the media in Dharwad, Bellad said: “A coffin would occupy 10 to 12 seats in a plane. Therefore, the priority should be on evacuating students stranded in the war-hit nation and bringing them back alive.”
The MLA then said: “Going by the terrifying bombing incidents in Ukraine, getting back stranded students has become a major challenge, and retrieving the body of Naveen and getting it back to India would be a difficult task. It could be delayed.”
He also accused the Medical Council of India of creating an artificial scarcity of MBBS seats and alleged that this has led to the prohibitive cost of medical education in the country.
Also read: Father appeals to the Government to get his son’s body from Ukraine
“Common people cannot afford to pay such huge fees and therefore are migrating to countries like Ukraine,” he said.
Meanwhile, under ‘Operation Ganga’ to rescue Indian citizens, 17 special flights came back to the country today from Ukraine’s neighbouring countries, including 14 civilian flights and 3 C-17 IAF flights. One more civilian flight was expected to arrive later in the day. While civilian flights carried 3142 persons, C-17 flights evacuated 630 passengers.
So far, over 9364 Indians have been evacuated by 43 special civilian flights. 7 flights of C-17 have so far evacuated 1428 passengers and taken 9.7 tonnes of relief material. Today’s civilian flights included 4 from Bucharest, 2 from Kosice, 4 from Budapest, 3 from Rzeszow and 2 from Suceava, while IAF flew 2 flights from Bucharest and 1 from Budapest.
Tomorrow, 11 special civilian flights are expected to bring back more than 2200 Indians, with 10 landing in New Delhi and one in Mumbai. 5 flights will originate from Budapest, 2 from Rzeszow and 4 from Suceava. Four C-17 aircraft are airborne for Romania, Poland and Slovakia, which are expected to reach late at night and early morning tomorrow.
*Shankar Raj is former Editor of The New Indian Express, Karnataka and Kerala, and writes regularly on current affairs.
– with additional inputs from global bihari bureau
