Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 14 (IANS): Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday informed the State Assembly that the state government will get in touch with the Centre and the National Medical Commission (NMC) to see how best the medical students in the state who have returned from war torn Ukraine can be helped.

"I assure the assembly, the state government will do everything possible to see how best our students who were studying medicine in Ukraine can be helped. A decision on what can be done has to be taken by the Centre and the NMC and for that we will do what can be done," said Vijayan.

He went on to add that NMC's decision is awaited as they are the competent authority for such things.

"There are guidelines of the NMC in extreme cases of war and pandemic periods on what needs to be done especially for those who are doing residency and what's the way forward for such students," added Vijayan.

He also pointed out that consequent to the war in Ukraine for all those students who were doing studies in various courses there, had to return and those who have lost their certificates and concerns of their future studies, the call has to be taken by the Centre.

"To coordinate all this, a special cell will be set up which will consist of officials from the Health department and the Non resident Keralites Affairs department (Norka) and an allocation of Rs 10 crore has been set aside in the recently presented budget," added Vijayan.

According to Vijayan there are around 3,000 Kerala students, most of whom are pursuing medicine at various universities in Ukraine.

Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has already asked Vijayan to see that steps are taken so that all those students who returned from Ukraine can resume their studies in the state and Karnataka has already announced that they are going forward with it.