Covid-19 lockdown: 500 students stranded in Kota reach Delhi in 40 buses

Delhi’s Transport minister Kailash Gahlot said the students would be sent to their homes from Kashmere Gate ISBT after medical tests.

Nearly 500 Delhi students, stranded in Kota due to the coronavirus lockdown, started arriving in the national capital on Sunday morning, news agency PTI reported. The Delhi government had sent around 40 buses to bring back these students.

The students from Delhi, stranded in Kota due to Covid-19 lockdown, arrive at Kashmere Gate ISBT on Sunday morning. (Biplov Bhuyan/HT Photo)

“A total of 480 students have been brought from Kota. All the students are reportedly fine,” PTI quoted Rajiv Singh, ADM (Central) and nodal officer for the operation as saying.

Delhi’s Transport minister Kailash Gahlot said the students would be sent to their homes from Kashmere Gate ISBT after medical tests.

These buses of the Delhi Transport Coporation reached Kota on Saturday morning. The staff is following social distancing norms while bringing back the students.

The buses also had a team of doctors and officials accompanying the students.

The move to bring back the students from Kota was announced by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal earlier this week.

In a tweet, Kejriwal had said: “Delhi government is making arrangements to soon bring Delhi students back home from Kota.”

Uttar Pradesh and some other states have already brought back their students from Kota in Rajasthan which is a coaching hub for competitive examinations and students from all over the country come there to study and live, especially for the premier engineering institutes.

Kota is famous for its coaching institutes for engineering and medical entrance exams.

To tackle these kind of situations where people are stranded, the Centre had recently allowed movement of such students, migrant workers, tourists and labourers.