Former MLC Ivan D'Souza demands to remove 'Adani' tag from arch of Mangaluru airport
Mangaluru, Apr 14: AICC secretary and former MLC Ivan D'Souza on Wednesday demanded that the Adani brand name be removed from the welcome arch of the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA).
Addressing reporters here, he said the Airports Authority of India (AAI) should take immediate steps to remove the 'Adani' tag from the airports name as it violated the agreement with the company which has only been given permission to operate and maintain the airport.
He said details obtained through an RTI query have revealed that the operating company cannot tag its name with the airport, which is fully under the Civil Aviation Ministry.
D'Souza alleged that due to the neglect shown by the AAI, the MIA has witnessed a slump in its growth over the years.
The facilities at the airport have not been improved and the number of flights have come down.
He said the Congress would launch a 'Save Airport' movement if the authorities continued to show neglect towards the MIA.
The number of flights to Mumbai have been reduced and the only flight to Mysuru has also been cancelled.
D'Souza said though 16 years have passed since MIA received international airport status, no flights have so far been operated to tourism destinations like Sri Lanka, Singapore and Thailand.
Presently, MIA has flights only to the Gulf countries, he said.
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MP cruise boat tragedy: Search ops expanded to trace four missing passengers
Jabalpur (PTI): Army divers and disaster response teams on Saturday expanded their search at Bargi Dam in Madhya Pradesh to locate a man and three children still missing after the cruise boat tragedy that claimed nine lives two days ago, officials said.
With 28 of the 41 identified passengers onboard the ill-fated cruise boat rescued safely, police are preparing to register an FIR in connection with the accident that occurred at the reservoir in Jabalpur district on Thursday evening, they said.
The search radius has been expanded to 5 km in the backwaters of the Bargi Dam, located downstream of the Narmada River, area sub-divisional officer of police (SDOP) Anjul Ayank Mishra told PTI.
Nine people drowned in the incident, while 28 were rescued, and efforts are ongoing to trace the missing persons, he said.
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According to the police, more than 200 rescuers, including around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, began the search operation at 5 am on Saturday to trace Kamraj, an employee of the Ordnance Factory in Khamaria, his son Tamil (5), Vijay Soni (6) and Mayuram (5).
Mishra said that an inquest case has been registered and the post-mortem of nine deceased persons has been completed.
"Our priority is to search for the missing persons. We will soon register an FIR," he said.
Investigators have said that CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the ill-fated boat, and the names of 41 persons, who boarded the vessel, have been ascertained so far.
Collector Raghvendra Singh confirmed that a search is underway for four missing persons.
The rescue operation, being carried out by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local divers, was briefly affected around 9 am due to strong winds.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the incident and dismissed three crew members after survivors alleged negligence and safety lapses, including failure to provide life jackets.
The government also banned the operation of similar vessels in the state.
The boat, operated by the state tourism department, sank during a sudden storm around 6 pm on Thursday, and the wreckage was retrieved from the dam water on Friday, after the rescuers confirmed that there were no more bodies inside.
Eyewitnesses have said that strong winds made the water choppy, prompting passengers to raise an alarm and ask the crew to steer the vessel towards the riverbank.
A survivor alleged negligence by the crew and described a last-minute scramble for life jackets.
