A file photo of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee
Between 2,500 to 3,000 students from West Bengal, stranded in Kota since the beginning of the lockdown on April 25, will board buses for their home state on Wednesday evening, Chief Mamata Banerjee has said.
The follow-up action from the state authorities comes just two days after Banerjee assured of extending all possible help to the state's residents stuck in different parts of the country. In a tweet on Monday, Banerjee had said that "all students from Bengal stuck in Kota [Rajasthan] would begin their journey back soon."
In bringing back the stranded students from the coaching hub in Rajasthan, the West Bengal authorities have followed in the footsteps of other state governments, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab among others.
Only Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has so far refused to bring his state's students in Kota back home, as he put the onus on Centre during a video conference call with the Prime Minister on Monday. Nitish, who has said that operating buses to bring back residents of the state stuck in different parts of the country would be in violation of "principles of lockdown," has asked the Centre to revise the lockdown guidelines before he could carry out any such decision.
