AMARAVATI: The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday said it was making every effort to safely bring back students belonging to the state stuck in war-hit Ukraine.
Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy spoke to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar over phone and discussed the steps being taken to bring back the stranded students home safely. The MEA informed the Chief Minister that steps were being taken to fly down the students by special flights through other countries bordering Ukraine.
A release from the CMO said the Chief Minister assured the Union Minister of all support from the state government, including arranging special flights, for bringing back the students home. The Chief Minister later held a high-level meeting with officials here and discussed the situation.
Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma told a press conference later in the afternoon that an emergency control room was opened in the state headquarters to assist the parents whose children went to Ukraine for education.
"There could be around 1,000 students from the two Telugu states in Ukraine. Efforts are on to move them to control rooms set up in neighbouring countries like Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Romania and from there fly them to India," he said.
Government Special Officer (International Cooperation) Gitesh Sharma, who previously served as Indian Ambassador in Ukraine, said they were in constant touch with the AP students in that country. "There is no need for panic and we will bring all students back to India," he said.
Senior IAS officer Babu Ahamed, who has been assigned coordination duty in the emergency control room, said they have so far received 130 calls from parents enquiring about the situation in Ukraine.
"We so far have details of only 170 students from the state in Ukraine. Information relating to other non-resident AP citizens staying in that country are being collected from the embassy and other sources," he said.