Nitish surprised by large presence of Indian students in Ukraine

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said I wonder how so many people come to know about cheaper courses in countries like Ukraine

Amid the conflict in Ukraine, the large number of Indian medical students in that far-off country, now seeking evacuation, has come as a surprise, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said here on Thursday.

Intervening during a debate on the floor of the state assembly, Kumar also said that the national phenomenon should lead to the realisation that medical courses, offered by private institutions back home, were prohibitively expensive.

I am surprised to see so many boys and girls opting for such a remote country for their studies this is a different scenario compared with the Soviet era when wards of those associated with the communist parties flocked to Russia and adjoining lands to study medicine,said Kumar.

The chief minister rose in his seat to intervene in response to a calling attention motion by 20 MLAs, including Sanjiv Kumar and Devesh Kant Singh, both of whom belong to the ruling NDA in the state.

The motion had sought price/fees capping at private medical colleges in the country where an MBBS course cost roughly Rs 15 lakh per year, which was three times as much as students had to pay in Ukraine, Nepal, the Philippines, China etc.

Kumar said I wonder how so many people come to know about cheaper courses in countries like Ukraine. Perhaps it has something to do with the proliferation of social media which has led to an information explosion. Nonetheless, the reasons for which they travel so far need to be realised nationally and addressed squarely.

In his reply to the motion, health minister Mangal Pandey said that the members' concerns will be made known to the fee fixation committee that has been set up in accordance with a Supreme Court judgement.

Altogether 144 boys and girls from Bihar have been brought back from Ukraine, so far, as part of the evacuation programme, according to an official release. The returnees have been from most of the 38 districts across the state.