Air India suspends 168 flights to Gulf and other destinations from Kerala

September 24, 2012

Air_India


Thiruvananthapuram, September 24: Kerala's normally divided opinion on issues found a rare change over the past couple of days, when political parties and experts from various fields were united in strongly protesting the abrupt cancellation of 168 Air India flights to the Middle East and other destinations.

The criticism rang loud across different media platforms on Saturday and yesterday as Air India strained to clear the backlog of hundreds of passengers bound for the Middle East and other destinations, and were stranded at various airports on Saturday.

Some of the passengers were provided connecting flights to their destinations on Saturday evening. The remainder were expected to be cleared by yesterday evening.

The relief, however, came only after everyone from Chief Minister Oommen Chandy down to stranded passengers, some of them carrying wailing infants or escorting elderly people, raised their complaints in one voice against the disregard shown by the national carrier to international travellers from Kerala. The matter had to be taken up with Federal Aviation Minister Ajith Singh.

Local MP Shashi Tharoor told a local television channel that he had been promised by Singh that “such a situation would not be repeated”.

Tharoor said the aviation minister had agreed to personally visit Kerala to apprise himself of the difficulties faced by air travellers. However, it is still not clear whether the cancelled flights from Kerala would be reinstated immediately.

The latest round of problems for travellers began when the Sharjah-bound Air India Express flight from here was cancelled on Saturday morning. To make matters worse, passengers felt the Air India staffers could not adequately answer their queries or inform them when they would be able to fly out. Some of the passengers were under severe mental stress because their visas were on the verge of expiration.

Passengers were further stressed when it became known that an aircraft was being diverted to Uttar Pradesh to operate Haj flights from that state, and that this arrangement may last through October.

Chief Minister Chandy requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene in the issue of frequent cancellations of flights from Kerala by the national carrier.

He said the steep increase in fares, coupled with flight disruptions doubled the misery of overseas-based Keralites.

Chandy had brought this point to the prime minister's attention hardly a fortnight ago, when Singh was in Kochi to inaugurate the Emerging Kerala investor meet.

Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala also wrote the prime minister about frequent flight cancellations, pointing out that this was an injustice to Keralites, while state minister for non-resident Keralites affairs, K.C. Joseph requested the federal civil aviation minister and the managing director of Air India to take immediate steps to stop such flight cancellations.

Left-leaning parties in the state also joined in the chorus denouncing such ill-treatment of passengers from Kerala.

The Communist Party of India state council passed a resolution protesting both the frequent flight cancellations as well as the steep hike in air fares to Gulf destinations.

Air travel industry expert K.V. Muraleedharan said he suspected a conspiracy behind the whole episode, in putting air travellers from Kerala in trouble.

In the backdrop of frequent hardships for air travellers from Kerala, the state government has proposed to launch its own carrier, Air Kerala.



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News Network
February 10,2020

Udupi, Feb 10: The throat swabs of three suspected coronavirus patients in Udupi that was sent for tests have come back as negative.

Throat swabs of three persons who got admitted at a district government hospital in Udupi with symptoms of fever on Friday was sent to Bangalore medical college and research institute for test to know whether the admitted persons who returned from China 15 days back had contracted coronavirus.

The 30-year-old man from Kaup taluk had been China on personal work and had returned to Udupi 15 days back. Upon showing the symptoms of fever, throat pain and cold, he was suggested to get admitted.

He was admitted in the isolation ward and was directed to remain under quarantine till the observation period ends and till the test report is obtained.

Another family from Mandarthi, a man and his wife, who had returned after a tour from China 15 days back were also kept under observation at the isolation ward in the district government hospital, Udupi.

Udupi DC G Jagadish has said that there are no coronavirus case reported in Udupi and people need not panic. Sources said that the three tested negatives for coronavirus in Udupi will be discharged from the hospital on Monday.

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Agencies
January 12,2020

New Delhi, Jan 12: In a shocking revelation, one unemployed person committed suicide every hour during 2018 when a total of 1,34,516 suicides, including 92,114 male and 42,391 female, were reported in the country, NCRB's "Suicide in India 2018" says.

The latest data, issued by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which comes under Ministry of Home Affairs, last week reveals that a total of 12,936 unemployed persons committed suicide in 2018, which accounted for 9.6 per cent of the total suicides, and were of aged below 18 years to above 60 years.

Those below 18 years include 31 males and nine females while those between 18 and 30 years comprise 1,240 male and 180 female. A total of 868 male and 95 female were aged between 30 and 45 years. A number of 237 males and 21 females were aged between 45 and 60 years while 2,431 males and 310 females were above 60 years.

Of the total suicides by unemployed persons, males are 10,687 while the females are 2,249.

The highest number of suicides - 12.3 per cent - committed by unemployed persons were in Kerala (1,585 out of 12,936 suicides), 12.2 per cent in Tamil Nadu (1,579), 9.7 per cent in Maharashtra (1,260 suicides), 8.5 per cent in Karnataka (1,094 suicides) and 7 per cent in Uttar Pradesh (902 suicides).

"Each suicide is a personal tragedy that prematurely takes the life of an individual and has a continuing ripple effect, dramatically affecting the lives of families, friends and communities. Every year, more than 1 lakh people commit suicide in our country. There are various causes of suicides like professional/career problems, sense of isolation, abuse, violence, family problems, mental disorders, addiction to alcohol, financial loss, chronic pain etc," says the NCRB adding it collects data on suicides from police recorded suicide cases.

As per the NCRB, rate of suicides has been calculated using projected population for the non-census years whereas for 2011, the population of the Population Census 2011 was used.

The NCRB data says that a total of 1,34,516 suicides were reported in the country during 2018 showing an increase of 3.6 per cent in comparison to 2017 and the rate of suicides has increased by 0.3 during 2018 over 2017.

Government servants accounted for 1.3 per cent (1,707 out of 1,34,516) of the total suicide victims as compared to 6.1 per cent (8,246 out of 1,34,516) of total victims from Private Sector Enterprises.

Employees from Public Sector Undertakings formed 1.5 per cent (2,022 out of 1,34,516) of the total suicide victims, whereas students and unemployed victims accounted for 7.6 per (10,159 victims) of total suicides. Self-employed category accounted for 9.8 per cent of total suicide victims (13,149 out of 1,34,516).

A total of 10,349 persons involved in farming sector (consisting of 5,763 farmers and cultivators and 4,586 agricultural labourers) have committed suicide during 2018, accounting for 7.7 per cent of total suicides victims (1,34,516) in the country.

A total of 11 transgenders have committed suicide in which three were daily wage earners, one each were 'professionals and salaried persons' and 'unemployed persons' while six falls under 'Other Persons'.

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News Network
January 11,2020

Mangaluru, Jan 11: CISF officials detained a passenger at Mangaluru International Airport here and seized from him currencies of foreign countries worth about Rs five lakh here on Saturday.

Official sources said that the passenger, identified as Shahul Hameed Theruvath, was supposed to take the Spice jet flight SG 059 for Dubai.

During the X BIS screening process, CISF officials noticed some suspicious image in Shahul’s hand baggage.

The thorough check of bag revealed foreign currencies of various countries worth Rs 5.48 lakh. The seized currencies were 76 US dollars of 100 denomination, Chinese Yuan, Malaysian Ringgits and Turkish Lira of smaller denomination. The currencies that were in his possession did not have any legal permission.

The personnel handed over the foreign currency recovered and the passenger to Customs officials for further inquiry.

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