Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee yet again on Friday questioned the Centre about its delay to bring back Indian students stuck in war-hit Ukraine. Banerjee also urged the Centre to arrange adequate flights to expedite the process.
"I am very much worried about the lives of the Indian students held up in Ukraine. Life is very precious. Why is it taking so much time to bring them back? Why was not things done earlier?" Banerjee wrote on Twitter.
"I urge the Central Government that adequate number of flights be arranged immediately and all the students brought back as soon as possible," she further wrote.
Her appeal comes a day after she targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on India's efforts to evacuate Indians stuck in Ukraine.
"The Prime Minister was aware of such developments three months back. But still, no initiative to bring the students back was taken. This is fault and negligence and 'negligence' of this type is a crime. We cannot play the game with students' lives. It takes a couple of phone calls to do all this. How much time would it take from political rallies? Students' lives are more important than politics," Banerjee had said.
Addressing a rally organised by the Samajwadi Party in Varanasi on Thursday, Banerjee further alleged that the Central government is asking Indians to come back on their own.
She said: "If you (Modi) have such good relations with Putin Ji (Russian president), then you must have known about the attack three months in advance. Why didn't the government do anything then? And now the government tells Indians to come back on their own. Many are stuck in bunkers without food facing a threat to life."
Meanwhile, the West Bengal government had set up a special 12-hour control room on February 25 to help students and people from the state, who are currently stranded in Ukraine.
The state government has already given the list of 200-odd Bengal students stranded in Ukraine and are making arrangements for their return at the earliest from whichever airport — Delhi or Mumbai.