Manipur violence update: States race to get people out of Manipur, some on special flights | India News
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Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have arranged special flights, while the Rajasthan government is talking to private airline IndiGO to bring back around 125 Rajasthanis, majority of them students, from Imphal. Manipur’s northeastern neighbours Assam, Meghalalaya and Tripura have already initiated the evacuation process of their residents stuck in the strife-hit state.
About 240 students from other states studying in Manipur were said to have been evacuated till Sunday, but many more remained stuck on campuses. All outbound flights from Imphal were fully booked for the next few days and airfares on the Imphal-Kolkata route swelled to Rs 22,000-Rs 30,000.
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Maharashtra has 22 students in Manipur and a plan has been worked out to airlift them first to Assam and then bring them home. CM Eknath Shinde’s office said 14 of these students had been shifted to the Shiv Sena office in Imphal.
“I spoke to two of them, Vikash Sharma and Tushar Awhad. I assured them we are arranging a special flight. I told them not to be afraid,” said Shinde.
Arpit from Lucknow is among hundreds of terrified and anxious students waiting to leave. “We are not getting proper food and water,” he said from his hostel in NIT Imphal. The BTech fourth-year student said around 200 students from UP were on the campus.
As calls for help rang out, UP CM Yogi Adityanath directed officials to make arrangements to evacuate the state’s students and other people from Manipur.
“I spoke with the chief secretary of Manipur and shared with him a list of students available with us. He has assured us help if any student is willing to return to his/her home state,” said UP principal secretary (home) Sanjay Prasad. “We have compiled a list of 25 students so far.”
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Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami has asked officials to bring back a student from the state studying in central agriculture university in Imphal.
About 150 students from Andhra Pradesh are stuck in Manipur and the state government is arranging a special flight that can haul as many people. State education minister Botsa Satyanarayana said the Union civil aviation ministry will inform about flight’s timings.
Neighbouring Telangana has identified 250 students studying in Manipur. There could be more. They will be ferried out Manipur on commercial flights and a batch was supposed to land Sunday in Hyderabad, but there seems to be some delay.
According to Haryana chief secretary Sanjeev Kaushal, seven students from Panipat were shifted from IIIT Imphal to a safe location. The Manipur government has appointed a nodal officer for their safe evacuation.
In Himachal, the Shimla DC has given out two phone numbers (0177 2655988, 9816966635) that can be contacted by “any students/persons” from the district stuck in Manipur.
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A bank official from Kolkata is among thousands waiting in Imphal airport to catch a flight out. “But airfares have hit the roof and nearly all flights to Kolkata and Guwahati are full,” he said.
Airfares have become abnormally high and unaffordable, according to travel agents, who also warned that fares are unlikely to normalise soon. Aman Thakur, a student from, Delhi said: “Students belonging to other states are being evacuated by their governments. Some are being taken by chartered flights and some at a nominal airfare. I am stuck here with three other friends from Delhi as we cannot afford the huge fare airlines are charging.”
For 13-odd students from Madhya Pradesh, it’s like living in a war zone. “We want to leave Manipur, but all we have got so far are assurances. There were bomb explosions close to my hostel. I want to go home,” said Sashibhan Tiwari, a third-year BSc student (sports coaching) in Imphal.
The students are mainly enrolled in engineering colleges IIIT and NIT as well as the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences—all three in capital city Imphal. “Students on campuses are safe. The situation in Imphal is under control and importantly, over 90% of students from other states study in central educational institutions in Imphal,” said Wangjam Sanatomba, assistant general secretary of North East Students’ Organisation (Neso).
Students from other NE states formed the bulk of a batch of 240 who left Imphal by Sunday evening, he said.
(Inputs from Mumbai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Bhopal, Hyderabad)
Watch Special flight arranged to bring Maharashtra students stuck in riot-hit Manipur: CM Eknath Shinde
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