Mangaluru International Airport records increase in passenger traffic
Mangaluru (PTI): Different airlines operating from Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) on domestic and international routes recorded good passenger traffic.
In the first five months of the present financial year, IndiGo and Air India registered passenger load of 87.5 per cent on the domestic destinations they connect directly.
On international routes, Air India Express and IndiGo recorded 81.7 per cent passenger traffic, a press release issued by MIA said.
Against a seating capacity of 3,21,554 on flights landing at Mangaluru from Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune, IndiGo and Air India had 2,80,739 passengers.
Arrivals from Mumbai saw the highest traffic with 1,12,973 passengers travelling against a seating capacity of 1,23,836. Pune had the least load factor of 69 per cent with 11,078 travellers against 16,062 seats on offer, it said.
For domestic flights departing from MIA, Chennai and Hyderabad recorded passenger loads of 89.91 per cent and 89.66 per cent respectively. A total of 10,520 passengers travelled to Chennai against 11,700 seats on offer, while Hyderabad saw 21,370 passengers travel against the available 23,836 seats. Mumbai came third with a load factor of 87.3 per cent with 1,08,695 travelling against 1,23,836 seats on offer.
On the international sector, the airlines recorded a passenger load of 81.7 per cent for 1,10,823 passengers arriving from Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dammam, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait and Muscat between April and August. The seats on offer for those destinations in these five months were 1,35,626.
The departure load factor for the above destinations from MIA was 83.3 per cent with 1,12,930 passengers travelling against a capacity of 1,35,449.
Arrivals from Dubai to Mangaluru saw airlines ferry 67,538 passengers against a capacity of 76,841, a passenger load of 88.26 per cent. Abu Dhabi was the next busiest, with an arriving passenger load of 85.65 per cent (13,414 travellers against 15,660 capacity).
Abu Dhabi emerged as the most sought-after international destination from Mangaluru, recording a load factor of 90.12 per cent with 14,276 passengers travelling against 15,840 seats on offer.
A total of 1,66,047 passengers travelled in August, both domestically and abroad. The arrival load factor to the 13 destinations was 83 per cent with 79,377 passengers travelling against 96,837 seats on offer.
Departures saw a load factor of 90 per cent with 86,670 passengers emplaning against 96,837 seats on offer. With additional domestic flights scheduled in the upcoming winter schedule, more people are expected to travel to and from Mangaluru, the release said.
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Supreme Court rejects plea for reverting to ballots in elections
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking to revert to ballot paper voting in elections in the country.
"What happens is, when you win the election, EVMs (electronic voting machine) are not tampered. When you lose the election, EVMs are tampered (with)," remarked a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and P B Varale.
Apart from ballot paper voting, the plea sought several directions including a directive to the Election Commission to disqualify candidates for a minimum of five years if found guilty of distributing money, liquor or other material inducement to the voters during polls.
When petitioner-in-person K A Paul said he filed the PIL, the bench said, "You have interesting PILs. How do you get these brilliant ideas?".
The petitioner said he is the president of an organisation which has rescued over three lakh orphans and 40 lakh widows.
"Why are you getting into this political arena? Your area of work is very different," the bench retorted.
After Paul revealed he had been to over 150 countries, the bench asked him whether each of the nations had ballot paper voting or used electronic voting.
The petitioner said foreign countries had adopted ballot paper voting and India should follow suit.
"Why you don't want to be different from the rest of the world?" asked the bench.
There was corruption and this year (2024) in June, the Election Commission announced they had seized Rs 9,000 crore, Paul responded.
"But how does that make your relief which you are claiming here relevant?" asked the bench, adding "if you shift back to physical ballot, will there be no corruption?".
Paul claimed CEO and co-founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, stated that EVMs could be tampered with and added TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, the current chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, and former state chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had claimed EVMs could be tampered with.
"When Chandrababu Naidu lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with. Now this time, Jagan Mohan Reddy lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with," noted the bench.
When the petitioner said everybody knew money was distributed in elections, the bench remarked, "We never received any money for any elections."
The petitioner said another prayer in his plea was the formulation of a comprehensive framework to regulate the use of money and liquor during election campaigns and ensuring such practices were prohibited and punishable under the law.
The plea further sought a direction to mandate an extensive voter education campaign to raise awareness and importance of informed decision making.
"Today, 32 per cent educated people are not casting their votes. What a tragedy. If democracy will be dying like this and we will not be able to do anything then what will happen in the years to come in future," the petitioner said.
