Following in the footsteps of Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra government, too, is planning to bring back students stuck in Kota in Rajasthan.
Kota is an eminent education town where students enrol every year to prepare for IIT and medical entrance tests.
Presently, there are around 1,800 students from various parts of Maharashtra in Kota. They have been stuck there ever since the lockdown began.
These students had urged the state government to make arrangements to bring them home. Initially, there were doubts whether it will be feasible to bring students back. However, after UP government took steps to bring back its students, Maharashtra, too, followed suit.
Vijay Wadettiwar, state minister for relief and rehabilitation, told THE WEEK that the students will be brought back from Monday onwards.
"A permission was required from Rajasthan government to transport the students back during lockdown. We have obtained that NOC. We are now busy making arrangements for transportation. We are discussing the issue with transport commissioner for making buses available so that students can come back. Things will be in place by Monday and then we will start bringing back the students," he said.
Earlier, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had discussed modalities to bring back students, with his Rajasthan counterpart Ashok Gehlot.
Thackeray and Gehlot also discussed various measures to check the spread of the coronavirus in their respective states, over phone on Friday, the Maharashtra Chief Minister's Office (CMO) tweeted on Saturday.
"Both the CMs also discussed arrangements made for the students from Maharashtra in Kota. Both the states are collectively working on modalities to ensure that these students return to Maharashtra," it said.
The Congress is one of the constituents in the Shiv Sena-led government in Maharashtra. The Congress is also in power in Rajasthan.
At least 13,000 students from Uttar Pradesh, 2,800 from Madhya Pradesh and 350 from Gujarat have already reached their homes from Kota, in the last few days, a Rajasthan government official had said on Friday.
Nearly 1,400 students from Haryana and Assam left Kota on Friday morning for their homes by buses arranged by their respective state governments.
Over 50 students from the Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Diu had left for home in three buses on Thursday noon and more than 250 students from Rajasthan had left for their respective home districts till Thursday night.
(With PTI inputs)
