Indus Valley Times

By Swagatika Bhutia

Bhubaneswar, March 4: A lot of thought and perseverance must go to strike out a solution to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine where India has a huge reason to be concerned about. Over 18000 students from India are on the tenterhooks and among which there are 800 students from the state of Odisha alone. It is indeed a traumatic situation and the war between Russia and Ukraine is unlikely to be over so soon, it has doubled the worries of India.

Developments there, in between, give a message that the war situation might escalate further with Ukraine perceptibly getting the support of other few nations. Which means the war is not anywhere near the end. Obviously, this standoff grows to be more agonising for the parents whose children are mostly into medical education which is completely a different course unlike other disciplines, are a worried lot and under huge mental pressure and agony.

Concern over the issue Dr. Achyuta Samanta, MP, Kandhamal said, not only the entrance but the medical science hardly allows any flexibility. Our Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik ji has been persistently pursuing at safe and early evacuation of people from Odisha stuck in the war-torn pockets of Ukraine. Our Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi ji has left no stone unturned to bring Indian nationals back. The evacuation efforts are laudable. I would like to request Hon’ble Prime Minister and Hon’ble Health Minister to urgently deal with the next problem of academics after they have brought 18000 students back to India safely.

There are 605 medical colleges in India, of which 325 exist in the Private sector. I hereby request our Hon’ble Prime Minister and Hon’ble Health Minister, Shri Mansukh Mandaviya to come up with a concrete policy for distributing the students to different medical colleges in India at the level they were continuing so that there is no disruption in their academics. Such a visionary compassionate step will secure the future and career of the students and their parents will be relieved, he added.

On average, each college will have to take into its fold 30 students spread across first to fifth year and internship. It won’t create any extra burden on the infrastructure. It will fall well within the norms and standards of the existing medical colleges without any violation. I also request to see that the fees charged to students should be at par with Government College. The modalities to facilitate such an arrangement can be decided and worked on by the National Medical Council and Ministry of Health.

Dr. Samanta requested to the Prime Minister of India to facilitate the continuation of medical education in India at Government level fees by concretizing a policy that ensures that none of the 18000 students are left behind and enabled.