Oscillating between hope and despair, the parents of the students from Punjab stuck in war-torn Ukraine on Monday urged the Governments to reach out to them rather than asking them to reach out to the Government for their safe return to India. The parents have been meeting the leaders and government officials in Punjab and New Delhi seeking help for their kids stranded in foreign land.
The distressed parents on Monday met Amritsar MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla, who also connected with the stranded students through video calls, and assured them that they would soon be brought back to India.
“The Government should make efforts to reach out to the children at this time. Children should not be asked to move out by themselves and reach out to the government and seek help,” said Inderpreet Singh, whose son Jaskirat Singh is stranded in Ukraine.
Aujla, who has been constantly taking up the issue with the Centre and the concerned, maintained that he, along with the help of other parliamentarians, would exert more and more pressure on the Government to ensure students early passage back home. Aujla would also be leading a delegation of parents to New Delhi on Tuesday.
Giving a patient hearing to the parents of nearly 100 students stuck in the war-hit country, Aujla maintained that he would make strenuous efforts to bring the children safely back home. “If the Centre continued with this attitude, I would stage a dharna...I would also take the cooperation of other MPs and I am in talks with many of them. Effort would be made to exert pressure on the government with the help of maximum parliamentarians,” he told the grieving parents.
Aujla also maintained that he is consistently sending email to the Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs and seeking time to meet him. “If he did not give time in a day, I will stage a dharna and will definitely bring the children back,” Aujla told the parents.
Supporting the MP, the parents also said that they would accompany him, after which they were asked to reach Delhi’s Bangla Sahib Gurudwara where all the arrangements of boarding and lodging will be made, and they would collectively exert pressure on the Central Government. It has been learnt that as of now, more than 500 stranded students have shared their details with the respective district administrations in Punjab, and the same were sent to the Central Government to ensure their evacuation.
“We have received data of 508 persons so far,” said the state Additional Director General of Police MF Farooqui, who is heading the dedicated 24X7 control room to assist the people from Punjab who are stuck in war-hit Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Congress MP from Anandpur Sahib Manish Tewari wrote to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to use his good offices to bring back Indians stuck in the eastern European country.
“Heart-wrenching videos of young students’ plight circulating on social media show that our boys and girls were being brutalised on the Ukrainian-Polish border...I know it is a difficult situation but I am given to understand that 20,000-30,000 of our young boys and girls are still stuck in various parts of Ukraine and a substantial number of them are stuck in eastern Ukraine that is close to the Russian border,” Tewari said in the letter.
The Congress leader further urged the Prime Minister to advise his Ministers, overseeing the evacuation, to redouble both the efforts and the resources required to bring every last Indian out of Ukraine safely. Punjab’s former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh also sought Prime Minister’s personal intervention to seek return of about 500 students from Punjab, stranded in different places in war-torn Ukraine. He also asked the Punjab government to appoint a nodal officer who can coordinate with the Central Government and the Ministry of External Affairs for the speedy return of the students.
Although the Punjab government has set up a dedicated phone number, it is yet to appoint any Nodal Officer for the purpose, so far, he said.
Sharing the concern and anxiety of the parents with the Prime Minister, Capt Amarinder said that they were feeling worried, as reports from Ukraine were coming in and showing the desperate plight of the students stranded in bunkers and metro-stations in harsh weather conditions and without any food.
He appreciated the Government of India’s efforts in bringing back people and hoped that the efforts will be further jacked up. “I understand the extremely difficult situation prevailing in Ukraine, but I am confident that our government will bring back every single student and person with safety and security,” he said.