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What is Operation Ganga?
- As part of the 'Operation Ganga' mission, Indian embassies in Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary made arrangements to receive Indian nationals from Ukraine and fly them out of their respective countries under Operation Ganga flights.
- 24x7 Control Centres were set up to assist in the evacuation of Indian nationals through Ukraine’s border crossing points with the four countries. Specific border crossing points were identified with each of these countries and the MEA had deployed teams, Russian-speaking officers to go there and assist in the evacuation process.
- In order to accelerate the evacuation efforts, the Centre appointed four special envoys to oversee evacuation operations of stranded Indians in Ukraine's neighbouring countries.
- Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri spearheaded evacuation efforts in Hungary, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju in Slovakia, Gen (retd) VK Singh in Poland while Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia looked after Romania and Moldova.
- The government of India also created a dedicated Twitter account named OpGanga Helpline (@opganga) to assist in the evacuation by sharing important advisories and instructions.
- The Union Health Ministry revised the mandatory international travel guidelines for all Indians being evacuated from Ukraine, allowing them to board flights without a negative RT-PCR report or vaccination certificate.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting on March 2, 2022, and asked the Indian Air Force (IAF) to join the evacuation efforts with its C-17 aircraft.
- Leveraging the capacities of the Air Force ensured that more people can be evacuated in a shorter time frame and it will also help to deliver humanitarian aid more efficiently.
Latest Updates on Operation Ganga
Protests and strikes by students seeking accommodation in Indian medical colleges have so far not yielded any assurance from the NMC, Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
To have evacuated safely more than an estimated 18,000 Indians from Ukraine amidst the ongoing conflict under 'Operation Ganga' while ensuring swift and speedy evacuation, is truly a commendable task
Indian Railways to spend Rs 1 trn on developing and procuring assets, the ministry planned to begin capital expenditure in April itself, said senior officials
Residents have been cowering under fire, and without power or water, in the Black Sea port city of over 400,000 people for more than a week
Ukrainian officials said that the continuous Russian shelling has derailed efforts to evacuate civilians from areas affected by fighting
A Ukrainian negotiator at talks with Russia on Monday said some small progress had been made on agreeing logistics for evacuation but no agreement was reached that significantly improves the situation