Facilitate continuation of medical education of Indian returnees from Ukraine: Patnaik urges PM Modi

BHUBANESWAR: With uncertainty looming large over the future of the medical students who returned from war-torn Ukraine, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to facilitate the continuation of their education in India.

In view of the situation in Ukraine, a large number of students from Odisha and other parts of the country had to return, Patnaik said in a letter to the PM, adding that the disruption in studies is likely to continue until cessation of the hostilities and restoration of normalcy in the East European nation. “This is an unprecedented crisis that has the potential of disrupting the careers of several thousands of young men and women who have already gone through the trauma of being in the war zone,” he said.

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“I would, therefore request for your urgent intervention with the National Medical Commission and the ministries concerned, to enable and facilitate continuance of their studies in the medical colleges in India from the stage from which their studies in Ukraine have been disrupted on account of the war,” Patnaik said in the letter to Modi.

The CM also assured full support of his government in this regard. BJD leader in Rajya Sabha, Prasanna Acharya, had also written to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Saturday, urging him to make alternative arrangements for smooth continuation of medical education of the students, who have been evacuated from war-torn Ukraine. More than 200 medical students have so far returned to Odisha from Ukraine since the Russian invasion.