Guwahati:The Assam government is facilitating the return of 391 students from Kota and they are expected to reach the state on April 26, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday.
The students started their journey in 17 buses from Rajasthan on Thursday and the Uttar Pradesh government provided them stay at Kushinagar in the night, the minister said at a press conference here.
The state government will not bear the cost of their travel and each student has paid Rs 7,000 for the bus journey, he said.
"Initially, we were not keen to bring them back and I held three Zoom meetings with them urging them to stay back but we have to consider the fact that they are all teenagers and felt insecure when Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh governments brought back their students," he said.
The state government air-dropped eight police officials to help the students and facilitated their journey back home by requesting Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal governments to allow their movement during the ongoing lockdown, Sarma said.
A team of state government officials is monitoring their movement through GPS and also coordinating with different state governments, he said.
"The students will have to undergo the mandatory institutional quarantine as they are coming from Rajasthan, which is in 'red zone'. Swab tests will also be conducted on them and even if they test negative, it will be the doctors who will decide on their release," he said.