Telangana govt to pay for education of students returned from Ukraine

K Chandrashekar Rao. File Pic

The Telangana government will bear the educational expenses of over 700 students brought back from war-torn Ukraine to enable them to complete their medical education in India, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao announced.

He told the Assembly that the state government will write to the Centre to give permission to 740 students who returned from Ukraine to complete their MBBS course.

KCR, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, said the students were studying medicine in various universities in Ukraine and the war has forced them to discontinue their education and return home.

He said that since the students face an uncertain future due to the current situation in Ukraine, the state government is ready to bear the expenses to help them complete the MBBS.

His announcement came while he was replying to the debate on the Appropriation Bill.

He said over 20,000 Indian students were stranded in Ukraine. They had gone there to study medicine as there were no opportunities for them in India.

"To study MBBS in India, it was costing them over Rs 1 crore and since they could not afford this they went to Ukraine where they had to pay Rs 20-25 lakh," he said.

In another major announcement, KCR declared that 7,000 field assistants working for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) will be taken back. The field assistants were removed after they went on strike. The CM advised them not to go on strike again.

He also announced that 4,000 employees working for Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) will be given salaries at par with the government employees.

KCR announced that Government Order (GO) 111 will be revoked after receiving the report of the experts' committee.

He said the GO, which imposes certain restrictions on constructions on around 1.32 lakh acres in catchment areas of Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar reservoirs in Hyderabad, has become redundant as the water from the two reservoirs is no longer being used for drinking purposes. He pointed out that water is being pumped from projects on Krishna and Godavari rivers to meet the drinking water needs of the city and surroundings.

KCR said the government will take all necessary steps to ensure that there is no haphazard development in 1.32 lakh acres with the revocation of GO 111. The GO was issued in 1996 for the protection of two reservoirs.

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