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Ukraine crisis: Yogi Adityanath says 1400 Uttar Pradesh students back
PM Modi’s relations with Ukraine’s neighbours led to the safe return of Indians, says CM Yogi Adityanath in interaction with evacuees
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said 1400 Uttar Pradesh students out of nearly 2400 belonging to the state were brought back safely from Ukraine so far. The remaining were also coming back, he said.
Yogi Adityanath also said it was due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “personal” relations with Ukraine’s neighbouring countries, including Poland, Romania and Hungary, that these countries had opened their borders only to Indian citizens, leading to the safe return of students.
The chief minister was interacting with students evacuated from Ukraine and their parents at his official residence, 5-Kalidas Marg, in Lucknow.
Yogi Adityanath claimed that “such a successful and systematic operation” to evacuate Indian citizens from Ukraine was never undertaken in the past.
“Citizens of other countries trapped in Ukraine are forced to return home at their own expense but the Indian government is bringing back its citizens at the government’s expense. Never before had such a successful and so systematic return operation been done, as it is happening today,” Yogi Adityanath said.
“We should feel proud of his (PM Modi’s) leadership and should be thankful to him for making Indians safe,” he said.
The chief minister said a total of 2,397 students of Uttar Pradesh were pursuing medical and other courses in Ukraine. Of them, 1400 students have been brought back safely till Saturday evening, he said.
“The government is trying to bring back the remaining 1000 children. Some people are coming today. Instructions have been given to every district magistrate of the state to meet the parents of the children returning from Ukraine and resolve their problems,” he said.
Yogi Adityanath assured the students a safe future.
“Your concerns are being taken up by government of India. The government and the National Medical Council are working on how your studies will go ahead, whether in the fourth year, third or second year,” Yogi Adityanath said.
During the interaction, the chief minister said Prime Minister Modi is holding regular meetings on the issue and has also held talks with President Vladimir Putin of Russia and other people concerned.
“Our embassies in all the countries adjacent to Ukraine, are actively working by staying on the border,” he said.
“The first goal of the government is to bring back all the students safely from Ukraine,” the chief minister said.
Yogi Adityanath asked the students to continue revising their syllabus at home.
Yogi Adityanath accused the previous governments in the state of not paying attention to the medical education sector.
“The reason you people had to go to Ukraine for medical studies is that the attention that should have been paid to the medical infrastructure after independence was not given,” he said.
“The country became independent in 1947 and till 2017, in 70 years, only 12 medical colleges were opened in Uttar Pradesh but between 2017 and 2022 we have opened 33 new medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh,” Adityanath said.
He said getting a MBBS degree in Ukraine may cost up to ₹30 lakh. Its cost in the United States and the United Kingdom was around ₹2 crore.
In private colleges in India, getting the same degree costs over ₹80 lakh, he added.
But government medical colleges give the opportunity at a much lower fee, he said.
“If you study in a government medical college in India, it will cost only ₹4 to 5 lakh,” he said.
Admissions have started in 17 new colleges, he said. In the remaining ones, admission will start in 2023, he added.
Within a year, each district will have at least one medical college, Yogi said.
Those present at the interaction include Pooja Yadav (third year MBBS student) of Lucknow, Avinash Chaturvedi (second year) of Lucknow, Amulya Yaduvanshi (third year MBBS student and native of Lucknow, Ayushman of Kanpur, Subi Bajpayee of Rae Bareli and Kuldeep Kumar Verma of Unnao.
