Sudden spurt in airfares: Govt to tighten noose

November 29, 2012
indianaviation

New Delhi, November 29: The freedom of airlines to charge public at their whim may soon be over with the Aviation Ministry planning to announce a more rationalised fare structure in a fortnight and keep a strict vigil on sudden and unexpected rise in airfare.

In the long run, the Ministry is also planning to have a regulatory mechanism to monitor fares, implying the demand and supply mechanism to determine airfares may also come to an end.

The move comes in the wake of an exorbitant rise in airfares during Diwali this year. On Diwali-eve, the economy class tickets from Mumbai to Kolkata went up between Rs 35,000 and Rs 43,000, while business class tickets were sold for as high as Rs 60,000.

Similar problems were faced in almost all metro routes prompting Aviation Minister Ajit Singh to order an inquiry into the matter. Now, the Ministry is planning to tighten the regulatory mechanism to monitor fares.

“Our focus right now is to maintain and rationalise the fares. This we are going to announce in the next fortnight,” Aviation Secretary K N Srivastava told Deccan Herald.

The Aircraft Act too provides for regulatory mechanism to monitor fares. “This is the proposal we will be considering as a long-run measure,” Srivastava said. He, however, maintained that the regulatory mechanism to monitor airfares needed to be deliberated at length before implementation.

The airfares are generally decided on the basis of “bucket system” provided by an airline to the aviation regulator DGCA. Airlines have a system of putting seats in different fare buckets and the fares rise from within the bucket as the aircraft gets filled.

But, when there is a heavy demand, specially during the festive season, the fares often exceed the bucket by a huge margin. This happened during this Diwali when the fares in most of the routes shot up by 15 per cent over the last Diwali spurt.

Srivastava said that the Aviation Ministry will also soon have a monitoring unit attached to it. All airlines will be duty-bound to inform this unit alongwith the DGCA on the fares they charge on a daily basis.


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Agencies
February 25,2020

New Delhi, Feb 25: Condemning the violence in Delhi, the Congress on Tuesday demanded that the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the Chief Minister of Delhi come forward to ensure peace and maintain brotherhood while rising above partisan politics.

"This is Gandhi, Nehru, Patel's India, can any Indian accept this mindless violence? Congress appeals to the people of Delhi to maintain communal harmony and thwart all attempts of the forces dividing the country on the basis of religion," Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters.

Unabated violence and incidents of stone-pelting and murder in the national capital have shattered the nation, he said, while referring to the riots in northeast Delhi over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act that continued for the third day, and demanded stern action against the culprits.

"Our appeal to the prime minister, the home minister and the Delhi chief minister is, can you rise to the occasion, leave aside your political partisanship and views, and become really not leaders of your parties but leaders of the society so that harmony, peace, and non-violence prevail," he said.

The Congress party will stand with the Centre and the Delhi government in every way to maintain brotherhood and harmony in the society, he said.

"Do not fail this country because you belong to different political parties," Surjewala said, adding this was a sincere appeal "on behalf of people of Delhi and the country" to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

"There is no place for violence in Gandhi ji's India... Today there is a need to establish peace on the ground and maintain brotherhood," he said.

Surjewala said the party also prays for the speedy recovery of DCP Amit Sharma and the hundreds of other people who have been injured in the violence.

"We also condemn the firing at three journalists Arvind Gunasekar, Saurabh Shukla and Akash and pray for their good health," he said.

"We strongly condemn these brutal riots and demand that the culprits are identified and stern action is taken against the real culprits and miscreants. The Congress mourns the death of Head Constable Ratan Lal and others in the violence," Surjewala said.

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News Network
March 29,2020

New Delhi, Mar 29: The Centre on Sunday asked state governments and Union Territory administrations to effectively seal state and district borders to stop movements of migrant workers during lockdown, officials said.

During a video conference with Chief Secretaries and DGPs, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla asked them to ensure that there is no movement of people across cities or on highways as the lockdown continues.

"There has been movement of migrant workers in some parts of the country. Directions were issued that district and state borders should be effectively sealed," a government official said.

States were directed to ensure there is no movement of people across cities or on highways.

Only movement of goods should be allowed.

District Magistrates and SPs should be made personally responsible for implementation of these directions, the official said.

Adequate arrangements for food and shelter of poor and needy people including migrant labourers be made at the place of their work, the official said.

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News Network
January 9,2020

New Delhi, Jan 9: The Union government has removed the central security cover of Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Paneerselvam and DMK leader M K Stalin, officials said on Thursday.

They said while Paneerselvam had a smaller 'Y+' cover of central paramilitary commandos, Stalin had a larger 'Z+' protection.

The security cover of these two politicians has been taken off from the central security list after a threat assessment review was made by central security agencies and approved by the Union home ministry, they said.

Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) commandos were protecting these two leaders of Tamil Nadu.

However, they said, the central security cover will be formally taken off after the state police takes over their security task, they added.

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