D K Shivakumar likely to officially take over as Karnataka Congress President on May 31
Bengaluru: Over two months after his appointment as the Karnataka Congress President, D K Shivakumar is likely to take-over the reigns of the party officially on May 31.
"There are two dates,May 31 and June 7. He is most likely to officially take over as KPCC President on the 31st," sources close to Shivakumar told PTI.
After remaining in a virtual vacuum for nearly three months, the party high command on March 11 appointed Shivakumar, known to be the Congress' chief troubleshooter in crisis situations, replacing Dinesh Gundu Rao as KPCC chief.
Rao had quit the post in December 2019 after the party's dismal show in the bypolls when it won only two of the 15 seats and yielded 12.
Congress sources said once the appointment letter came from the high command, he has been KPCC president and officially taking charge was just a formality.
"He will be officially handed over the party insignias and responsibilities relating to bank accounts and cheques, among other things, that has been traditionally followed," they said, adding the official take over was delayed by the coronavirus.
After his appointment as KPCC president, Shivakumar has been meeting a host of senior party leaders and leading the party in the fight against coronavirus.
These include setting up of Congress' COVID-19 task force, alerting the government in its management of the crisis, holding weekly video conferencing with leaders of party's local units to gather information, among other things.
Sources close to Shivakumar said the official take over would be a simple event, looking at the current situation due to the pandemic.
"Very few select party leaders and office bearers, say about 50 odd people, are likely to be in attendance at the simple event at KPCC office," they said, adding that arrangements may be made to telecast the event live for the benefit for party workers and local leaders.
A six-time MLA, Shivakumar had a long wait for his appointment to the coveted post, due to opposition within. There were reports that Congress Legislature Party leader Siddarmaiah had lobbied in favour of one of his confidants for the top job.
In a first, appointment of three KPCC Working Presidents- Satish Jharkiholi, Saleem Ahammed and Eashwar Khandre, was seen as an attempt by those apposing Shivakumar, to weaken his hold on the party.
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Indigo cancels 67 flights from multiple airports due to bad weather, operational issues
Mumbai (PTI): Domestic carrier IndiGo on Thursday cancelled 67 flights from multiple airports due to "forecasted" bad weather and operational reasons, according to the airline's website.
Of the 67 cancelled flights, only four were for operational reasons, and the rest were due to "forecasted" bad weather at various airports, including Agartala, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Varanasi, Bengaluru, among others, as per the website.
Aviation regulator, DGCA, has announced the period between December 10 and February 10 next year as the official fog window this winter.
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As part of the DGCA fog operations (CAT-IIIB) norms, airlines have to mandatorily roster pilots who are trained to operate in low-visibility conditions, as well as deploy a CAT-IIIB-compliant aircraft fleet for such operations.
Category-III is an advanced navigation system that empowers an aircraft to land under foggy conditions.
Category-III-A is a precision instrument approach and landing that enables a plane to land with a runway visual range (RVR) of 200 metres, while Category-III-B helps in landing with an RVR of under 50 metres.
IndiGo, whose operations are under DGCA monitoring after the cancellations of thousands of flights early this month, is already operating a curtailed schedule in compliance with the government's order.
Under its original winter flight schedule, the airline was permitted to operate 15,014 domestic flights per week, or about 2,144 flights per day, roughly six per cent higher than the 14,158 weekly flights it operated during the summer schedule of 2025.
However, after the massive disruptions, which saw the airline cancelling 1,600 flights on a single day on account of new rest norms for pilots, which allow more rest to the pilots, the government cut down the airline's domestic flight schedule by 10 per cent or 214 flights per day.
As a result of that, IndiGo can't operate more than 1,930 flights per day on domestic routes under its current winter schedule.
The Rahul Bhatia-controlled airline cancelled thousands of flights between December 1 and December 9 on account of a lack of proper planning, and crew shortage in implementing the new set of regulations for pilots' duty period and rest, which were put in place from November 1, thereby causing severe hardships to lakhs of air travellers.
Following this, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) formed a four-member panel, comprising Joint DG Sanjay Brahamane, Deputy Director General Amit Gupta, senior Flight Operations Inspector Kapil Manglik, and FOI Lokesh Rampal, with a mandate to identify the root causes of widespread operational disruptions at the Rahul Bhatia-controlled domestic carrier.
The panel, which has already grilled IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers and Chief Operating Officer Isidre Porqueras as part of its probe, is expected to submit its report by this week.
Meanwhile, IndiGo, in a travel advisory on X, said, "Low visibility and fog over Bangalore has impacted flight schedule. We are keeping a close watch on the weather and doing our best where you need to be safely, smoothly".
Reacting to the advisory, an aggrieved passenger, in an X post, said, "My flight on December 20 from Bhubaneswar to Ahmedabad got delayed for more than five hours, and today my return flight from Ahmedabad to Bhubaneswar also got delayed more than three hours with the same excuse as bad weather. I am travelling with my senior citizen parents, and this delay is not acceptable. Need proper explanation, along with compensation".
