Free travel to those who participate in Janaagraha convention
Bus Owners Association’s diktat draws flak
Mangaluru, November 22: The direction of the Dakshina Kannada District Bus Owners Association to the bus owners, drivers and conductors to allow the people, who participate in Janagrah convention organized by the VHP and Bajrang Dal at Nehru Stadium on November 25 in support of Ram Mandir construction at Ayodhya, to travel freely has received widespread criticism.
In a meeting with the office bearers of the Bus Owners Association, MLA Vedavyas Kamath appealed the bus owners to provide free travelling facility to the people who would participate in the convention. Following this, association president Dilraj Alva and general secretary Prakash Shekha directed the bus owners, drivers and conductors to take the people free of cost to the Janagrah convention. This decision has received widespread criticism and being debated in the social media. Earlier also, bus owners association used to support the Hindutva organizations indirectly. Now, by directing the bus owners and drivers to allow the people in the buses freely, the Association has been supporting the Hindutva organizations openly, people accused in the social media.
DYFI
At the time of election, the efforts of BJP and the Sangha Pariwar in communal polarization are part of their political strategy. As part of that agenda, they have organized the convention in Mangaluru on November 25 demanding Ram Mandir construction at Ayodhya. This was completely a political programme with a hidden agenda engineering communal hatred.
The decision of the private bus owners association to provide free travel facility to the people to a political programme is condemnable. It was a shocking news that the association has served notice to all bus owners. A public transportation system should not be misused for certain communal programmes. People of the district should raise their voice against such a decision, said DYFI state president Muneer Katipalla.
Muslim merchants association
Muslim Merchants Association has said that the bus owners association decision is illegal. This would lead problems for the common people to travel in buses. Will the association office-bearers who act as per the Sangh Parivar’s direction, accept if other organizations appealed like this, association president Ali Hassan asked.
Won’t affect passengers: Dilraj Alva
“Following the appeal of MLA Vedavyas Kamath, the bus owners were requested to allow those who participate in Janagrah convention to travel in the buses freely. This is not the new development. Earlier also same kind of facility was made. But I don’t know why this issue is being blown out of proportion. We are not cutting the routes of any buses for this purpose. It is just asked the bus owners to provide the people free travelling opportunity”, Association President Dilraj Alva told Varthabharathi.
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IndiGo crisis enters day 7; 127 flights cancelled from Bengaluru
Mumbai (PTI): Flight disruptions at IndiGo entered the seventh day as the crisis-hit carrier cancelled 127 flights from Bengaluru Airport on Monday, a source said.
In another development, aviation safety regulator DGCA in an order on Sunday late evening extended the time by Monday 6 pm for IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers and Chief Operating Officer and Accountable Manager Isidro Porqueras to submit reply to its show cause notice over the ongoing disruptions in the airline’s operations.
In the notices issued to Elbers and Porqueras on Saturday, the regulator said the large-scale operational failures pointed to significant lapses in planning, oversight, and resource management, and asked them to submit their replies within 24 hours.
IndiGo has cancelled 127 flights, including 65 arrivals and 62 departures from Bengaluru Airport, the source said.
ALSO READ: IndiGo cancels over 650 flights on Sun; ops slowly stabilise
The Gurugram-based airline, partially-owned by Rahul Bhatia, has been facing heat from both the government and the passengers for cancelling hundreds of flights since December 2, citing regulatory changes in the pilots' new flight duty and regulations norms, which resulted in lakhs of passengers getting stuck at airports pan-India.
For the first three days the airline failed to acknowledge the huge number of cancellations and it was only Friday when it cancelled 1,600 flights (Friday), a record in Indian aviation history that CEO Elbers released a video apologising for the major inconvenience caused to passengers due to the disruptions.
In the message, he admitted that the airline was cancelling a large number of flights, but did not mention that it would cancel 1,600 flights on that particular day.
The new norms, applicable for all domestic carriers, have come into force in two phases - July 1 and November 1 this year.
IndiGo has already temporarily secured major relaxations in the second phase norms till February 10.
The latest FDTL norms, which entail increased weekly rest periods to 48 hours, extended night hours, and limiting the number of night landings to only two, as against six earlier, were initially opposed by domestic airlines, including IndiGo and Tata Group-owned Air India.
But they were subsequently rolled out by the DGCA following the Delhi High Court's directives, albeit with a delay of over one year, in a phased manner, and with certain variations for airlines like IndiGo and Air India.
The norms were originally to be put in place from March 2024, but airlines, including IndiGo, sought a step-by-step implementation, citing additional crew requirements.
