Assam: Efforts to send 23 students stranded in Barpeta to Madhya Pradesh

GUWAHATI: The Barpeta civil administration is making efforts to send back a group of 23 students from Madhya Pradesh, who have been stranded at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV) in the lower Assam district since the imposition of the lockdown.
Barpeta district magistrate Munindra Sarma on Thursday took stock of the situation in the residential central government school in Sarbhog area of the district.While many students, who have come from other states to the northeast under a cultural exchange programmme for one year under the JNV system, are also stranded in various districts of the region, the initiative by the Barpeta district administration may bring big relief to the students from JNV Harda, located in Harda district of Madhya Pradesh.
"We are holding talks with the state government so that the students from Madhya Pradesh can be sent back to their homes at the earliest. Efforts are on to send the group of 23 students through a special flight on April 15," said Sarma.
JNV Barpeta authority said the students from JNV Harda came to Barpeta on a cultural exchange programme almost a year ago and their one-year tenure of stay in Assam was almost over. Similarly, a batch of students from the JNV Barpeta also went to JNV Harda for a year, but the sudden announcement of the lockdown due to the breakout of coronavirus left them in a spot.
The students from Madhya Pradesh could not be sent back to their home state from JNV Barpeta, while other students of the school, who are from Assam, were instructed to vacate the school premises just before the lockdown started.
However, there is no update on the initiative by the government to bring back the students who are outside northeast, studying in different JNVs under the cultural exchange programme. With the efforts the Barpeta district administration and the Assam government, the students of Madhya Pradesh may soon be able to see their family members, but the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti's Shillong regional office, which looks after the JNV affairs in the northeast, wants to wait at least till the end of the 21-day lockdown before taking a decision for the other stranded students.
"It's natural that the guardians are worried about their children under the prevailing circumstances. But we are taking care of them and food is being provided to them on time. Every health safety measure is being taken inside the campus," said school principal Biplab Howli.