Nitish Kumar says no to getting students back from Kota. Then explains

india

Updated: Apr 27, 2020 17:15 IST

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, unfazed by mounting pressure, said on Monday that his government will not be able to bring home students stuck in Rajasthan’s Kota unless the Centre revises lockdown guidelines.

A national lockdown is in place till May 3 to check the halt of coronavirus disease.

“Our students are not just in Kota but also many other parts of the country... it would not be possible to bring them back until the Centre amends its guidelines, which we are adhering to suitably,” said Nitish Kumar.

Participating in chief ministers’ videoconference with Prime Minster Narendra Modi, Kumar spoke about many states having arranged for return of students from the Rajasthan town, and also made an oblique reference to the pressure from opposition parties that his government has been facing on the issue.

A total of 2,152 cases of coronavirus have been reported in Rajasthan so far.

Earlier today, a group of 369 students, hailing from different districts of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, reached home from Kota in 15 buses, officials said.

All the students would go through mandatory administrative quarantine as a precautionary measure after reaching their home districts, officials added.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath set the ball rolling on the matter by being the first to send the buses to Kota to bring home students, putting pressure on other states.