KARAIKAL: Puducherry Education Minister R Kamalakannan has written to Chief Minister V Narayanasamy to bring back the 17 students, including nine girls of Navodaya Vidyalaya School, who are stranded in Madhya Pradesh as they had travelled on a student exchange programme. They are stuck in the State for over a month owing to the lockdown.
“The parents met me. They are emotional and agitated due to the delay in bringing the kids back. I have requested the chief minister to take up the issue with the CM of Madhya Pradesh and arrange for movement of these students from Rewa to Puducherry at the earliest,” he said.
The class 9 students had gone to the school in Rewa last June, when 23 students came from there to Karaikal to study as part of a student-exchange programme among Navodaya schools.
S Manimegalai, one of the parents of the students from TR Pattinam, told Express, “My daughter and her classmates are under tremendous distress for the past one week. They are avoiding food in protest in their hostel. They feel lonely as their other schoolmates have reached back to their homes. Please bring our children back soon.” The parents of the students protested in front of JNV school in Karaikal on Monday.
A Vincent, representative of Parents-Teachers Association of schools in Karaikal said, “From Rewa, one needs to cross fours States to reach Karaikal by roadways. It is unsafe for girls. We have a helipad in Karaikal. The government should bring them back by air if possible, as early as they can.”