You cannot hide behind advisories: K.C. Venugopal slams Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia over high airfares
The Hindu
Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia should take concrete action to control rising airfares rather than “hiding behind” advisories and quoting “random figures”, Congress leader K.C. Venugopal said on June 13, 2023
Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia should take concrete action to control rising airfares rather than "hiding behind" advisories and quoting "random figures", Congress leader K.C. Venugopal said on Tuesday (June 13), firing a fresh salvo in the war of words between them.
Mr. Venugopal and Mr. Scindia have been sparring on Twitter since Sunday over the state of the aviation sector.
On Monday, the Minister hit back at the Congress general secretary (organisation), saying he was "cherry-picking" facts to attack the BJP government while forgetting the "step-brotherly" treatment meted out to civil aviation during the UPA rule.
Tagging Mr. Scindia's long Twitter post from Monday, Mr. Venugopal tweeted that this entire "flight price fiasco" is unravelling the "criminal extent" to which the Ministry of Civil Aviation "neglected" passenger welfare and the aviation sector.
"The more we dive deeper, the greater the mess we see. You have opened a Pandora’s box, @JM_Scindia ji," he said.
As per the Ministry's own affidavit in the Jet Airways insolvency case, airport slots are neither assets nor rights of the airline, but mere permissions granted on a 'use it or lose it' basis, Mr. Venugopal said.
"In 2020, then MoS Civil Aviation @HardeepSPuri ji, in response to a Parliamentary Question, stated that Jet Airways slots were being reallocated on a temporary basis. In this case as well, if GoFirst is not using its slots, these must be allocated to other airlines on a temporary basis. Why is the govt treating the GoFirst crisis differently?" he said.
“We are judges and therefore, cannot act like Mughals of a bygone era ... the writ courts in the guise of doing justice cannot transcend the barriers of law,” the High Court of Karnataka observed while setting aside an order of a single judge, who in 2016 had extended the lease of a public premises allotted to a physically challenged person to 20 years contrary to 12-year period stipulated in the law.
The High Court of Karnataka on Monday declined to interfere, at present, in the investigation against a Bharatiya Janata Party worker, who is among the accused persons facing charges of circulating obscene clips, related to “morphed” images and videos clips related to Prajwal Revanna, former Hassan MP, in public domain through pen drives and other modes.
The 16th edition of Bhoomi Habba was held on June 8, at the Visthar campus. The festival drew a vibrant crowd who came together to celebrate eco-consciousness through a variety of engaging activities, creative workshops, panel discussions, interactive exhibits and performances, all centered around this year’s theme: “Save Water, Save Lives.”