Operation Ganga to evacuate hundreds of students stranded in war-torn Ukraine | VARINDIA News Hour

India had launched an operation to bring home hundreds of students stuck in war-torn Ukraine under the name #OperationGanga. Let us find out more about this challenging operation. As Ukraine closed its airspace for civilian flights after Russia began its invasion, about 16,000-strong Indian diaspora, mostly students, were left stranded in the war-torn country. As students made appeals for evacuation from bomb shelters, New Delhi launched a multi-pronged evacuation plan named ‘Operation Ganga’ to bring home its citizens. Accordingly, Indian missions in Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary have been making arrangements to receive Indian nationals from Ukraine and fly them out of their respective countries under Operation Ganga flights. The cost will be borne by the Centre. The government announced that four Union Ministers will travel to Ukraine’s neighbouring countries to coordinate the evacuation. Petroleum minister Hardeep Puri would go to Hungary, aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to Romania and Moldova; law minister Kiran Rijiju to Slovakia and Minister of State for Civil Aviation VK Singh to Poland. The government also created a dedicated Twitter account named OpGanga Helpline to assist in the evacuation by sharing important advisories and instructions.

At the same time, the Union Health Ministry has revised the mandatory international travel guidelines for all Indians being evacuated from Ukraine, allowing them to board flights without a negative RT-PCR report or vaccination certificate. The travel guidelines have been revised on humanitarian grounds. The fact that India is able to evacuate its citizens out of war–torn Ukraine through “Operation Ganga” is proof of the country’s increasing influence around the globe, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Prime Minister said big countries are facing problems in getting out their citizens saf.