DGCA issues show cause notice to Air India for inordinate flight delays
New Delhi (PTI): Aviation watchdog DGCA on Friday issued a show cause notice to Air India for inordinate delay of at least two international flights and failure to take due care of passengers.
The show cause notice also comes at a time when passengers of a San Francisco-bound Air India flight from the national capital, that was originally scheduled to take off around 1530 hours on Thursday, faced a harrowing time due to an inordinate delay.
The flight is now scheduled to take on Friday afternoon.
In the show cause notice, the regulator mentioned about the inordinate delay of two international flights -- AI 183 from Delhi to San Francisco on May 30 and AI 179 from Mumbai to San Francisco on May 24.
An official said Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia took cognisance of the flight delays and inconvenience caused to passengers, following which the DGCA issued the show cause notice.
Both flights were delayed and passengers were put to discomfort due to insufficient cooling in the cabin.
Further, repeated incidents of passengers being put to discomfort by Air India in violation of DGCA norms have come to the notice of the regulator, as per the show cause notice.
The regulator also noted that Air India is "time and again failing in taking due care of passengers", and not complying with its provisions related to 'Facilities to be provided to passengers by airlines due to denied boarding, cancellation of flights and delays in flights".
"Air India is hereby called upon to show cause as to why enforcement action shall not be initiated against the airline," for the violations, the regulator said.
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Dalit outfits call state-wide hartal over dental student’s death
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Various Dalit organisations on Monday announced a state-wide hartal seeking justice in the death of Kannur Dental College student Nithin Raj.
The hartal will be observed on Tuesday from 6 am to 6 pm.
As many as 52 Dalit organisations, including Justice for Nithin Raj Action Council, have announced the strike.
Organisations requesting cooperation for the strike said that no vehicles will be forcibly stopped and that all essential services are exempted.
Raj, a first-year BDS student at a private dental college in Anjarakkandy in Kannur district, was found critically injured after falling from a building on April 10 and later succumbed to his injuries.
Police have registered a case against two faculty members on charges of abetment of suicide and under provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, following allegations by the student’s family that he was subjected to caste- and complexion-based harassment.
Kerala Pinnokka Samudaya Munnani (KPSM), one of the organisations supporting the hartal, alleged in a statement that police had shown apathy in the investigation and were attempting to protect the accused in the case.
KPSM state president K V Padmanabhan and general secretary S Anwar alleged that the probe into Raj’s death was being deliberately misdirected and delayed.
While the family has firmly alleged that caste discrimination and mental harassment by faculty members led to the student’s death, police were attempting to divert the investigation towards loan app borrowings, they claimed.
The organisation alleged that this was a planned move to shield the real accused.
KPSM further alleged that by deliberately delaying the arrest of the accused teachers, police enabled them to secure anticipatory bail.
They said there was no confidence in the present police investigation and demanded that the case be handed over to an independent agency at the earliest.
