West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday slammed the Central government for delaying the evacuation of Indian nationals from Ukraine and asked when the government was aware of developments then why didn't they act earlier.
"Somebody died, some people are moving from here and there. somebody is waiting in bunkers, somebody is waiting in Romania, somebody is not getting food. They search for food and get killed. When the government was aware of developments, why didn't they bring the students earlier?" said Banerjee.
The Chief Minister further said that she is not in favour of criticising the government, especially for the Ministry of External Affairs.
"I don't want to criticise the government, especially for a matter of external affairs, because we're one. But sometimes I have seen that in external affairs matter, because of some coordination gap and political business, we are lagging behind and our students are stuck there," she said.
As part of the 'Operation Ganga' mission, special flights are being operated free of cost. The first such evacuation flight carrying 219 Indian nationals stranded in Ukraine landed in Mumbai on February 26. Several such flights have landed in India so far.
Indian Air Force (IAF) has also joined the government's evacuation efforts as its C-17 transport aircraft left for Romania in the early hours of Wednesday morning from the Hindan airbase near New Delhi.
The Chief Minister said that she has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over an all-party meeting.
"He is busy with the Uttar Pradesh elections. So, I am also going to Uttar Pradesh. But I have done my duties after that," said the Chief Minister when asked about her letter to PM Modi offering unconditional support to the government and suggestion for an all-party meeting if needed.
She further said that she is going to Varanasi to campaign for Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
( With inputs from ANI )
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