After multiple incidents of misbehaviour at airports and on flights by several lawmakers recently, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on Tuesday said a national “no-fly” list will be rolled out in the first week of July, PTI reported.
The ministry had proposed placing flying bans on passengers from between three months to three years. It had added, though, that the fly-lists would not be mandatory for all airlines to follow.
“We have received very comprehensive and exhaustive feedback from stakeholders,” Sinha said on Tuesday. “We will ensure that it balances out all stakeholders’ interests.”
According to the draft norms, the national list will include names of passengers who were identified as “unruly” by any airline during inquiry. Moreover, the list will also include the names of persons who have been identified as a threat by security agencies.
His comments come after Telugu Desam Party MP JC Diwakar Reddy had allegedly gotten abusive with airline staff at Visakhapatnam airport on June 15, when he was not allowed to board a plane because he had arrived late. All domestic airlines had imposed a flying ban on Reddy after that.
In March this year, most airlines had banned Shiv Sena MP from Osmanabad in Maharashtra, Ravindra Gaikwad, from flying after he assaulted a 60-year-old Air India staffer for not giving him a business class seat on a Pune-Delhi flight.
Air India privatisation, and GST
Commenting on Niti Aayog’s proposal to privatisate Air India, Jayant Sinha said the Cabinet had conducted inter-ministerial consultations on it and would decide on a course of action soon, PTI reported. “We are going through the analysis process. Those recommendations are with the Cabinet right now and the Cabinet will take the process forward,” he said.
Sinha also said that the aviation ministry was ready for the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax from July 1. His comments came after it was reported that the aviation ministry on June 15 had urged the finance ministry to delay the implementation of GST by two months, citing unpreparedness and expressing concerns over certain aspects of the GST.
“We people are working very closely with the finance ministry to make sure that everybody is ready for July 1,” he said, according to PTI.
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