by Moiz Mannan
Years of registering protests and political lobbying have yielded very little for non-resident Indians from the Gulf region when it comes to their travel woes.
Air travelers on the Gulf-Kerala sector, in particular, have been amongst the worst sufferers owing to peculiar reasons, and now they will get another opportunity to press for their demands. The forthcoming eleventh edition of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas, to be held in Kochi from January 7 to 9, 2012, will feature a special session dedicated to the host state, Kerala.
This is the forum where NRIs and their representatives are expected to raise the crucial questions and most distressing issues faced by them.
Only last week, the Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation K.C. Venugopal conceded before the Indian Parliament that his ministry was aware of complaints from NRIs highlighting their difficulties faced during Air India flights. He further admitted that the complaints mainly correspond to Kerala-Gulf sector and relate to cancellation of flights, hike in air fare and flight timings etc. The Kerala-Gulf sector is a strategic market for Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express.
Indian law makers were assured that the low-cost carrier, Air India Express is trying to improve its schedule integrity by hiring more dedicated pilots for its fleet. The parliament was told that the company has chalked out a “detailed time bound” recruitment plan so that the scarcity of pilots can be addressed. Air India Express also operates additional flights during festival season like Onam, Eid and school vacations.
Last month, members of Parliament from Kerala, cutting across party lines and political affiliations, had decided to raise a protest against the “neglect” of the state by Air India, especially its failure to serve properly the NRI travellers.
This neglect has also been conveyed to the civil aviation minister, Ajit Singh, by his predecessor Vayalar Ravi, who heads the ministry of overseas Indians affairs. Having said that, Ravi himself has publicly wondered how Singh might succeed where he himself had failed. On an optimistic note, Ravi has shown faith in his successor’s assurance that “all steps” will be taken to resolve the issues related to services of Air India Express to Kerala from different Gulf countries.
Incidentally, besides Ravi, the minister of state for civil aviation, K C Venugopal and the minister of state for External Affairs, E. Ahamad, also belong to Kerala.
In October this year, no less a person that the Chief Minister of Kerala, Oomen Chandy had lashed out at Air India over the infamous hijack alarm incident at the Thiruvananthapuram Airport. The senior politician said what had happened was “sheer cruelty” by the airline authorities towards passengers from the state.
The incident prompted Indian Union Muslim League workers take out protest rallies in Kozhikode, Ernakulum and Thiruvananthapuram. The protesters gave vent to their anger and frustration against the national airlines for charging unreasonable fares, cancelling flights, being arrogant towards the passengers and diverting routes without prior notice.
The anger among NRIs peaked in September this year when Air India had cancelled 168 flights from three international airports in Kerala -- Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode leading to unprecedented confusion and hardship. Taking advantage of the frequent cancellation of flights by Air India, private airline operators abruptly increase their fares, it has been alleged.
Some of the passengers were given connecting flights, but the relief came only after Chief Minister Chandy joined the chorus of protest from stranded passengers, some of them carrying wailing infants or escorting elderly people.
Chandy had even moved Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene in the issue of frequent cancellations of flights from Kerala by the national carrier.
MP Shashi Tharoor, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala, and state minister for non-resident Keralites affairs, K C Joseph are among the bigwigs who have written to the centre about this.
A Kerala-based NGO, the Centre for Non Resident Indians and Returnees even filed a petition in the Kerala High Court seeking a direction to Air India for providing alternative travel arrangements for passengers stranded due to frequent cancellation of its flights.
Chandy has maintained that his government has virtually given up taking up issues repeatedly with Air India with no positive response and that was the basic reason which prompted it to float Air Kerala as a state-sponsored carrier, mainly to serve non-resident Keralites working in Gulf countries. Kerala along with a set of leading NRIs from the Gulf are pushing for permission to the seemingly improbable airline proposal by setting aside certain norms citing the precedent of Air India Express.
the peninsula
