Chandigarh: In order to ensure every possible help to the distressed families in this hour of crisis, Punjab Chief Secretary Anirudh Tewari on Saturday reviewed the status of calls received on the state government’s dedicated 24x7 Control Room numbers, which was set-up yesterday to assist the people from Punjab, stuck in war-hit Ukraine, besides directing all the Deputy Commissioners, CPs and SSPs to immediately update the data with passport numbers of all the stranded persons to ascertain the actual number of persons stuck.

Chairing a high-level meeting of Deputy Commissioners, CPs and SSPs here at his office, the Chief Secretary urged the affected persons and their relatives to immediately contact on the Punjab Government’s helpline numbers 1100 (to call from within Punjab) and +91-172-4111905 (to call from outside India). He said that total 155 calls have been received so far on these control room numbers and these queries are being immediately forwarded to the Ministry of External Affairs, GoI for safe and secure evacuation of persons stranded in Ukraine.

Tewari also asked Rakhee Gupta Bhandari, Resident Commissioner, Punjab, to set up a Punjab Help Desk at New Delhi Airport to assist persons arriving from Ukraine, besides coordinating for their safe travel to homes. The Chief Secretary appealed to the parents and relatives of the stranded persons to ask their children not to move to any border posts without prior coordination with Government of India Officials and to strictly follow the guidelines of MEA, GoI.

Principal Secretary, Home, Anurag Verma, DGP Punjab VK Bhawra, Principal Secretary Governance Reforms and Public Grievances Tejveer Singh, Principal Secretary General Administration and Coordination Vivek Pratap Singh, SPSCM-cum-Secretary Information and Public Relations KK Yadav and other senior officers of the state government also attended the meeting. /BI/