Mumbai Feb 25 PTI Around 1200 students from Maharashtra are stranded in war-hit Ukraine and efforts are on to evacuate them safely state rehabilitation minister Vijay Wadettiwar said on FridayTalking to reporters the minister said the state government was gathering information at district level about the students from the state who are stuck in the east European country and all collectors have set up helpline numbers for this purposeThe stranded students or their relatives can contact the state control room on 022-22027990 WhatsApp number 9321587143 and email id controlroommaharashtragovin he saidHis department was collating information about how many people from Maharashtra are stuck in Ukraine Wadettiwar saidContact has been established between 300 students and their parents he addedEarlier in the day higher and technical education minister Uday Samant said he has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to make arrangements for the safe return of some 1200 students from the state who are currently in Ukraine Samant made the same demand in separate letters to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and External Affairs Minister S JaishankarThe Ministry of External Affairs has also issued helpline numbers for Indians stuck in Ukraine They are Toll-Free - 1800118797 Telephone 011-23012113 23014105 23017905 Fax 011-23088124 Email situationroommeagovin PTI PRENM NP KRK KRK KRK

Kohima Oct 29 PTI The Committee on Public Undertakings COPU of the Nagaland assembly on Friday expressed grave concern over the huge financial loss Rs 192 crore incurred by state-owned Nagaland Hotels Ltd NHLTaking serious cognisance of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India CAG report on the financial loss faced by NHL the COPU headed by MLA Mhathung Yanthan along with other members inspected the two government-run hotels in the state on FridayTalking to the press after inspecting Hotel Japfu here Yanthan said that the committee is of the view that there is room for improvement to overcome the lossesNHL has two functional hotels Hotel Japfu in Kohima and Hotel Saramati in DimapurIn its report laid during the February session of the assembly the committee observed that in spite of making many constructive recommendations to the department concerned by the successive committees over the years to initiate austerity measures to redress the overall losses incurred by NHL no concrete result-oriented strategies were attemptedEven in regard to the implementation of the Voluntary Retirement Scheme VRS proposal or the business plan of revival of the two hotels no tangible steps have been taken by the concerned department it saidYanthan said that Fridays inspection was a follow-up of the committees report to understand the functioning of the hotelsHaving inspected the rooms and surroundings of Hotel Japfu he said the hotel constructed in the late 1980s is quite old but is maintained well and to run such an old hotel is a challenge in itselfThere is still room for improvement and we advised the hotel management to run it efficiently and profitably he saidFurther measures to improve the functioning to attain a certain level of profit would be recommended in the next report which will be tabled in the assembly he saidWe are delving into all the issues and taking up with the departments concerned to address those he addedThe grant-in-aid of Rs 192 crore given by the state government to NHL is a loss incurred by the state Yanthan saidCOPU member MLA Bongkhao Konyak Commissioner and Secretary Nagaland assembly PJ Antony Commissioner and Secretary Industries and Commerce Kekhrievor Kevichusa accompanied the COPU chairman while NHL Managing Director H Pienyu and General Manager Shurhovol Naleo were present PTI NBS SOM SOM