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Bihar, J&K students still stranded in Kota
Around 35,000 to 40,000 students were stranded in Kota when the national lockdown to check the spread of Covid-19 was announced on March 24.
Patna/Kota: Most students, barring those from Bihar and Jammu & Kashmir, are expected to leave for their homes by April 27 from the coaching hub of Kota as their home states were arranging transportation for them, Rajasthan officials said on Friday.
Around 35,000 to 40,000 students were stranded in Kota when the national lockdown to check the spread of Covid-19 was announced on March 24. About 175,000 students enrol in Kota for coaching for admissions to medical and engineering colleges every year.
About 18,000 students from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Daman and Diu have left Kota on buses arranged for them this week.
Over 2,000 students from different parts of Rajasthan were also sent home, officials said. Over the next few days, students from Assam, West Bengal, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra were expected to return to their homes on buses arranged by these state governments.
Jammu & Kashmir and Bihar are yet to make arrangements for about 11,000 students to return to their homes, officials said.
The Bihar government on Thursday said it is sensitive to the plight of the stranded students but bringing them back amid the lockdown was not desirable and as it would amount to a violation of the Centre’s guidelines that bar interstate transport.
A group of students from Bihar on Thursday sat on a hunger strike in Kota demanding that they be sent back home.
“All state governments are taking back their students from Kota but the Bihar government is not listening to the students,” said Milan Jaiswal,18, a student. She added that her parents were under a lot of stress as she is stranded in Kota.
Another student, Noor Shazima, 19, from West Champaran in Bihar, said she was under a lot of stress as no studies were happening and the coaching town looks like a ghost city as most students have returned. “Only a few of us are there. And, we do not know what will happen next.”
Adnan Altaf, 19, a student from Jammu & Kashmir, said their families back home were very concerned and in a panic regarding the Covid-19. He said the government should help them return home.
Bihar’s Congress leader Premchandra Mishra on Friday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s help in ensuring the return of Bihar’s students. “Leaving our students there when Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh governments are sending buses for students from their states is absurd. Chief minister Nitish Kumar should explain his compulsion in not helping these students.”
