Air India asks its crew to say 'Jai Hind' after every flight announcement
New Delhi, Mar 4: Air India crew will have to say "Jai Hind" after every flight announcement "with much fervour", said an official advisory of the national carrier on Monday.
"With immediate effect, all (crew) are required to announce 'Jai Hind' at the end of every announcement after a slight pause and much fervour," stated the advisory issued by Amitabh Singh, Director Operations, Air India.
The advisory has been marked to all crew members of the cash-strapped carrier.
During his first stint as Air India's Chairman and Managing Director, Ashwani Lohani had issued a similar direction to pilots in May 2016.
According to officials, the current advisory is a "reminder" to the staff, in line with the "mood of the nation".
"The captain of a flight should often connect with passengers during the journey and, at the end of first address, using the words 'Jai Hind' would make a tremendous impact," Lohani said in a communication to his staff in May 2016.
Besides, Lohani in his communication had also asked the staff to be "courteous and polite" to passengers and said wearing a smile would be a "good thing".
Lohani had said, "The cabin crew should greet the passengers while emplaning and deplaning with a 'namaskar' as was the tradition. A smile on the face and conversing sweetly and politely without an iota of irritation would be a good thing."
Last month, the central government called back retired technocrat Lohani to head the carrier as chairman and managing director for a second time within two years.
His first tenure as Air India chief was from August 2015 to August 2017. Lohani was appointed Railway Board chairman in August 2017 and retired in December 2018.
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SC to hear on May 4 PIL seeking stringent guidelines for issuing Aadhaar to adolescents, adults
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea seeking a direction to the Unique Identification Authority of India to issue new Aadhaar cards only to citizens up to the age of six years, and frame stringent guidelines for its issuance to adolescents and adults to stop infiltrators from masquerading as Indian citizens.
As per the apex court's causelist of May 4, the plea would come up for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.
The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay has also sought a direction to the authorities to install display boards at common service centres stating that the 12-digit unique identification number is only a "proof of identity" and not a proof of citizenship, address or date of birth.
Besides all the states and Union Territories, the plea has made the UIDAI -- which is the authority that issues Aadhaar -- and the Union ministries of home, law and justice, and electronics and information technology as parties.
The plea, filed through advocate Ashwani Dubey, said Aadhaar, originally intended as a proof of identity, has increasingly become a "foundational document" enabling individuals to obtain other identification documents, such as ration cards, domicile certificates and voter identity cards.
"The UIDAI has issued 144 crore Aadhaar and 99 percent Indians have been enrolled. Therefore, the petitioner is filing this writ petition as a PIL under Article 32, seeking a direction to UIDAI to issue new Aadhaar to children only and frame new stringent guidelines for adolescents and adults, so as to stop infiltrators from getting it and masquerading as Indian citizens," the plea said.
It said the need to file the plea arose when the petitioner came to know the manner in which infiltrators are able to procure Aadhaar through a verification process that is weak and can be easily manipulated.
"Foreigners apply for Aadhaar under the 'foreign' category. But infiltrators apply for Aadhaar under the 'Indian citizen' category and get it easily made. Thereafter, they obtain a ration card, birth and domicile certificate, driving licence, et cetera, essentially becoming indistinguishable from Indian citizens…," it said.
Besides seeking other directions, the plea has raised legal questions, including whether the Aadhaar Act 2016 has become "temporally unreasonable" for failing to keep up with the legislative intent of distinguishing foreigners from Indian citizens.
It said the alleged misuse of Aadhaar undermines targeted welfare delivery and leads to diversion of public resources.
