On Wednesday, Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, said that an “extraordinary solution” was needed to help medical students who came back from war-torn Ukraine. She also made some recommendations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about how to help them.
Around 391 students who came back to West Bengal from Ukraine “are going through stress and anxiety because they don’t know what their future holds.”
READ MORE: Winning the presidential polls won’t be easy for BJP: Mamata Banerjee.
The West Bengal CM said her government would help the students who came back from Ukraine pay for their medical school fees. The National Medical Commission (NMC) is in charge of regulating medical education in India.
Banerjee’s goal was to ask the PM to let Ukrainian students who came back to the country do internships at government medical schools and apply to private medical schools in India.
“The private medical schools in the state have agreed to let these students stay for free,” Banerjee said.
The West Bengal CM also asked Modi to make it easier for people to get into medical schools if they pass the NEET-UG exam.
The current rules of the NMC say that only students who pass the National Entrance Eligibility Test (NEET-UG) can get into medical schools now. Many of the students who came back from Ukraine don’t meet this rule.
The letter read: “It is requested that the relevant rules be changed in an extraordinary case to help these students.”
In the Rajya Sabha, S Jaishankar said, “Although there was a serious conflict between Russia and Ukraine, India ensured that 22,500 citizens were back home safe and sound. This was done under the name “Operation Ganga.” Some 150 people from 18 countries were also brought back to India from conflict zones. This is in line with the Indian principle of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,”
