'Centre-appointed officers didn't respond to SoS messages'
KOLKATA: Family members of a fifth year medical student, who spent over 48 hours in the open air amid snowfall on the Ukraine side of Romania-Ukraine border to get immigration and cross over to the other country, alleged that the Centre-appointed officers in Romania didn't respond to the SoS calls of the family.
"I sent WhatsApp messages to 2 to 3 Central government-designated officers on Sunday night saying that my daughter was living without food and water for two days. They did not bother to respond to my messages, though all of them were online and had read my messages," Debasish Gupta, father of 23-year-old Bitasta Gupta, said on Monday.
A resident of Hooghly's Uttarpara, Gupta sent his daughter to Ukraine in 2018 for medical studies. She is a student at Ternopil National Medical University. After remaining under the open sky at the Suceava land border (Ukraine-Romania border) empty stomach from Saturday 12 pm till Monday 12 pm, the girl finally managed to cross over to Romania on Monday.
Debasish Gupta said: "They helped my daughter to cross the border and enter Romania after somebody had Tweeted the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. At some point of time, my daughter told us over the phone that she could die if she sits on the ground amid snowfall with nothing to eat. She had some coffee and managed to charge her mobile phone at a cafeteria situated at the border."
Bitasta finally boarded a bus in the afternoon and was expected to reach a rescue centre at Bucharest near the airport by late Monday night. She had been given a VISA for 3 days.
Another medical student, Sayan Pan, a resident of Domjur, went to Ukraine in 2020. He is a second year medical student at National Pirogov Memorial Medical University at Vinnytsya.
According to his family members, Sayan along with some other Indian students reached the Ukraine-Romania border on Saturday. They travelled over 10 km by foot to reach the checkpoint after getting down from the bus. His father Barun Pan said that Sayan had to spend days and nights in open air as there were none in the Indian
Embassy there.
