Mita Mukherjee
Bengal Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday offered a number of benefits to 391 students who were compelled to return to Bengal from war-torn Ukraine recently to ensure that they do not leave studies midway.
Banerjee on Wednesday met the Ukraine returnee students at Khudiram Anushilan Kendra auditorium in Kolkata after many of them had wanted to meet her and discuss their problems.
Interacting with the students the chief minister said her government will accommodate the second to sixth year medical students who have returned from Ukraine at the state’s private medical colleges and allow them to complete their studies.
She said she has written to the National Medical Council (NCM), the medical education regulator in the country seeking its permission to offer this facility to the affected medical students.
She said if the NMC rejects the request she would go to Delhi with the students and urge the council to accept the proposal considering the future of the students.
She promised the students that her government will allow the medical interns who have returned from war-hit Ukraine to work at the state-run medical colleges and provide them a monthly stipend at par with other students.
“If the NMC gives the permission, students who have come from Ukraine can pursue the courses at private medical colleges. The students will not have to pay fees. The private colleges and the government will share the fees. We will urge the NMC to consider our proposal as a special case on humanitarian grounds,” the chief minister said.
In case of the first year students the government will facilitate online classes and arrange offline practical classes for them at the private and state-run medical colleges.
“Please don’t be disheartened. We are all with you,” the chief minister told the students.
Among the Ukraine returnees some of them are from the engineering stream. The chief minister said the government will make necessary arrangements to ensure that the engineering students are able to complete their courses. The government will also ensure that these students are not required to pay higher fees.
Banerjee today wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to accommodate the Ukraine returnee students in colleges across the country so that they can continue their studies.
Also read:
Karnataka: Varsities offer bridge courses to medical students from Ukraine
Indian Embassy in Kyiv is “helpless” &”powerless”: Ukraine-returned medical student
Ending Russia-Ukraine war: A solution
Posted in News, States
