Coronavirus COVID-19: Uttar Pradesh government decides to send 250 buses to bring back stranded students from Rajasthan's Kota

In a good news for over 7,500 students from Uttar Pradesh who are stuck in Rajasthan's Kota due to nationwide lockdown, the state Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh on Friday (April 17) decided to send around 250 buses to Kota to bring these students back to the state.

The nationwide lockdown has been extended till May 3 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to curb the spread of coronavirus COVID-19 cases in the country.

The Uttar Pradesh has made three parking spots in the state to send these buses to Kota and it is learnt that these buses will move from six different points.

The Uttar Pradesh government swung into action after the stranded students started a Twitter campaign – #helpkotastudents and #sendusbackhome where they tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla who is an MP from Kota, chief Minster Ashok Gehlot, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath among others.

It is to be noted that students from different parts of the country come to Kota to attend coaching classes as Kota as emerged as a hub of coaching centres for engineering and medical entrance exams in the last decade or so.

Earlier, Kota district administration had allowed students to leave for their native states but the permission was later withdrawn, leaving thousands of IIT and medical aspirants stranded.

Notably, Kota is one of coronavirus COVID-19 hotspots in Rajasthan with the number of cases increasing significantly in the last few days.