Govt should help us continue studies in India: Student

Mangaluru: A student who has returned home from war-ravaged Ukraine has said that the support of the Indian government was unforgettable.
“The Government of India has helped us throughout our journey from Kharkiv to our native places. Some may have complained about the government’s failure in evacuation, but personally, I feel the support from the government was unforgettable,” Heena Fathima, from Ujire in the Belthangady taluk of Dakshina Kannada, said.
Heena reached home on Sunday. “We are back here alive only because of the Indian embassy in Ukraine,” she said.
Narrating the inconveniences she faced in a packed train from Kharkiv to the border, Heena said girls were accommodated in the train on priority. “We had to walk for about a kilometre to reach Poland. There were many Indian volunteers on the Polish border,” she said.
She requested the government to help Ukraine-returned medical students to continue their education in India. On Naveen Shekarappa Gyanagoudar, who was killed in Kharkiv, Heena said: “He was my senior and a guide in studies.”
Out of 18 students from Dakshina Kannada, 16 are back in India. The ones who have not returned yet are Naimisha and Sheikh Mohammed Taha.
Students Anaina Anna, Ahamed Saad Arshad and Claton Osmond D’Souza will reach Mangaluru International Airport at 10.50 am on Monday. Naimisha from Moodbidri and Taha from Mangaluru have reached Romania, said deputy commissioner Dr K V Rajendra.
Only one out of seven students from the Udupi district is yet to leave Ukraine.
Deputy commissioner M Kurma Rao said that Glenwill Fernandes was moving towards the western border of Ukraine to reach Hungary. Six other students from Udupi from the war-torn country have returned.
Glenwill’s father Melwyn Fernandes thanked the Indian embassy for arranging buses when private operators in Kharkiv demanded 500 dollars (Rs 38,000) for a 19-hour journey from Kharkiv to Lviv. “The Udupi district administration extended all support,” he said.