Prime Minister Narendra Modi has deputed four Union Ministers to oversee the evacuation of stranded Indians amid the ongoing Russian military campaign in Ukraine. This comes after PM Modi held a high-level meeting over the crisis between Russia and Ukraine on Monday. Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia, Minister of Law Kiren Rijiju, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri, and Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport Gen (Retd) VK Singh will be overseeing the repatriation operations in the neighbouring countries of Ukraine from where Indian repatriation flights are taking off as part of ‘Operation Ganga.’
Jyotiraditya Scindia will be overseeing evacuation operations of stranded Indians in Romania and Moldova, while Kiren Rijiju will be visiting Slovakia. Hardeep Singh Puri will be overlooking operations in Hungary, and Gen (Retd) VK Singh will manage evacuations in Poland.
Today’s meeting was the second high-level meeting chaired by PM Modi in the last 24 hours over the evacuation of Indian citizens from Ukraine. At the Monday meeting, PM Modi reiterated that ensuring the safety of Indian students and evacuating them is the nation’s top priority.
The Indian government has launched ‘Operation Ganga’ to bring back Indian citizens affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Special flights are being operated by Air India from Romania, Poland, Hungary, Moldova and Slovakia to repatriate Indian citizens. As many as 1,156 Indians from Ukraine have arrived in India so far.
On Monday, MEA spokesperson, Arindam Bagchi informed via his tweet that a dedicated Twitter handle has been set up to assist in the evacuation of stranded Indians in Ukraine. The tweet read, “A dedicated Twitter handle has been set up to assist in the evacuation of Indians from Ukraine OpGanga Helpline. Please direct all related queries to @opganga.”
