HYDERABAD: Telangana’s NRI Department does nothing except arrange transport to fetch the bodies of those who die overseas. That it has no mechanism to know how many students from the state are studying and in which country became painfully clear when there were frantic efforts to find out how many were stranded in Ukraine after Russia began shelling its cities.
Since 2014, the NRI Department has brought 1,600 bodies of those who died due to various reasons to Telangana from different countries. But the department has no records of those who live in other countries and in which profession they are in, and also about the students who have gone abroad for higher studies.
The state NRI Department is dependent on the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for details of people from the state who are abroad for various purposes. But when the Ukraine crisis precipitated, even the MEA could not help Telangana have an idea as to how many Telangana students are studying and in which university or college. Finally, they issued a helpline number on which about 140 calls were received.
While around 67 students from Ukraine have reached Telangana safely and many are yet to be evacuated, the officials are unable to give the exact numbers. E Chittibabu, an official in NRI Department, said: “There is no mechanism to keep track of people who went overseas from Telangana. The records are available with MEA and they have to share the info whenever we need it.”
Families lament ‘ineffectual’ nature of department
The family members of the students stranded in Ukraine rue that the NRI Department is ineffectual. Speaking to Express, a parent said: “It should have data of all people who go abroad from Telangana. It will be helpful in times of emergencies like the one that we are seeing in Ukraine.”