KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday assured all possible help to people stuck outside the state amid the coronavirus-triggered lockdown, and said she would personally oversee the measures being undertaken to reach out to them.
Taking to Twitter, Banerjee also said that the process to bring back students stuck in Rajasthan's Kota has been initiated and they would soon start their journey back home.
She asserted that people of Bengal stranded elsewhere need not feel helpless as long as she is the chief minister.
"GoWB (Government of West Bengal) will initiate every possible help to people of Bengal stuck in diff (different) parts of the country due to lockdown, in returning home. I've instructed my officers to do the needful. Till the time I'm here, nobody from Bengal should feel helpless. I'm with you in these tough times," she tweeted.
"I am personally overseeing this & we will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that everyone gets any possible help. The initiation has already started & all students from Bengal stuck in Kota would begin their journey back soon," Banerjee added.
Last week, Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha had expressed helplessness in bringing back around 5,000 students stuck in Rajasthan's Kota, a coaching hub for engineering and medical aspirants, saying logistically it was not possible at that point in time.
He had urged the students and their families "to be patient for a few more days".
"We have to organise 300 buses which will have three- night halts on the way from Kota to West Bengal. It is not possible to get so many people from Rajasthan to West Bengal," Sinha had said.
Over 390 students arrived in neighbouring Assam from Kota on Monday.
They have been placed under institutional quarantine.
Earlier this month, the governments of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh had also sent buses to the western state to bring back students stuck in the coaching hub.