Bihar offers free travel from Delhi home for students in Ukraine
Information and public relations department minister Sanjay Jha said 21 Bihar students from Ukraine were being evacuated by MEA through Bucharest and they were due to arrive in New Delhi on February 26 morning.
**Patna** — Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar Friday evening said his government will bear the travel expenses of people from the state who are expected to land on the Indian soil on Saturday upon rescue from war-ravaged Ukraine.
"I thank the Union government for deciding to send special planes to Ukraine to bring back stranded Indians. There is information that two planes carrying Indians, including those from Bihar, will land in New Delhi. Bihar government will facilitate free travel for those from Bihar to the state," Kumar tweeted.
He said he had asked the Bihar resident commissioner in New Delhi, Palka Sahni, to stay in touch with the ministry of external affairs and the Indian embassy in Ukraine to coordinate and facilitate safe and quick evacuation of Bihar students stranded there. Sahni later responded she was.
Information and public relations department minister Sanjay Jha said 21 Bihar students from Ukraine were being evacuated by MEA through Bucharest and they were due to arrive in New Delhi on February 26 morning.
"Efforts are underway to evacuate Bihar students through neighbouring countries of Hungary, Poland, Slovak Republic and Romania. The CM has directed Bihar officials to receive these students," he said.
Several Bihar students stranded in Ukraine and their kin back home have taken to Twitter and other social media platforms pleading for evacuation.
"My brother Sivam Kumar is from Jamalpur, Munger, and is stranded in Kharkov, Ukraine. Why there is no evacuation plan for students in Kharkov?" asked Abhishek Anand from Munger MP Lalan Singh, who promptly referred it to the MEA.
Rashid Rzwan from Gopalganj and Ankit Kumar Shah from Katihar tweeted how the situation was turning dangerous. "We want early evacuation, as Russian forces are advancing," they said.
One Rajiv Kumar tagged Nitish Kumar with an appeal for evacuation, as his February 24 flight was cancelled and he was stuck in a dangerous situation. Some of the students have tweeted that they were running short of food, as the situation was turning worse.
As per rough estimates, there could be over 400 students from Bihar studying in Ukraine.
Helpline
Bihar's disaster management department has issued helpline numbers for assistance to people from stranded in Ukraine.
06121070 (Toll-free)
+ 917070290170
email: seoc-dmd-bihar@bihar.gov.in
Bihar Bhawan: 011-23010147
+ 917217788114
email- rcbihar@yahoo.in
rescm-bi@nic.in
*Ministry of external affairs
1800118797(Toll-free)
+911123012113
+ 911123014104
+ 911123017905
+ 911123088124
email- situationroom@mea.gov.in
Arun Kumar is Senior Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times. He has spent two-and-half decades covering Bihar, including politics, educational and social issues.
About the Author
Arun Kumar is a veteran journalist and Associate Editor with Hindustan Times, based in Patna. For more than three and a half decades, his reporting has chronicled Bihar's complex political landscape, university and educational reforms, landmark judicial rulings of the Patna High Court, administrative governance, and social shifts across the state. Known for deep investigative reporting and source-grounded accountability journalism, he is a recipient of the prestigious K.C. Kulish Journalism Award and the Keshav Bhatt Journalism Award, and is an LDM Fellow.