Air India website puts flight chartered for BSF on 'sale'

June 30, 2012

BSF_Flight

Kolkata, June 30: For a few hours between Thursday night and Friday noon, a website error dissolved one of the world's great divides - between civilian and military.

An Air India flight chartered for the Border Security Force (BSF) found its way into the regular bookings section of the airline's website, allowing civilians book their seats in the exclusive military-only aircraft. One of those who had logged on to book a seat on AI-3255 - the Silchar-Kolkata flight on July 8 - was Keith Menezes, the director of a tea company. Menezes would have probably had to return from Silchar airport had he not called up the station manager to reconfirm the flight before making the payment. "I had booked a flight to Kolkata for June 29. But my trip got postponed and I tried on Thursday night to change the ticket to July 8. Since the AI website doesn't accept flight changes, I decided to first book the flight and then make the cancellation," Menezes said.

When he logged on - unaware like most others that an AI flight number beginning with '3' indicates it's chartered - AI-3255 was one of the options along with two other flights.

No confirmed bookings on BSF flight

Director of a tea firm Keith Menezes said: "Three flights figured on the website - AI 3254 at 7.30am, AI 9706 at 9.20am and AI 754 at 3.15pm. I opted for the first flight and was about to pay for when I decided to do it offline. When my agent went to the onsite counter, he was told no seats were available as it was a chartered flight. Why did they have to put us through this harassment?"

The duty manager of the airline in Kolkata, P K Dutta, was shocked by the flight being posted on the bookings section. "It should never have figured on the website. No seats are available on the flight," he said. The flight was taken off the website around Friday noon.

An Air India spokesperson admitted the mistake. "As soon as we were alerted about the error, we called up our Delhi office and got it rectified. However, there were no confirmed bookings on the flight. Else, it would have led to complications. Any Air India flight starting with the numerical '3' is chartered," he said. Air India operates chartered flights for the Indian Army, the BSF and the Reserve Bank of India.

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News Network
February 16,2020

New Delhi, Feb 16: Just an hour ahead of the swearing-in ceremony, Arvind Kejriwal invited the people of Delhi again for his oath-taking ceremony at Ramlila Maidan today.

Referring himself as "son of Delhi", the AAP convener today tweeted saying, "Delhiites, your son is going to take oath as Delhi chief minister for the third time. You must come to bless your son".

The AAP national convener will be sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Delhi for the third time in a row.

Arvind Kejriwal is scheduled to take oath along with other ministers at Ramlila Maidan.

On Saturday, Kejriwal, through a tweet, has said that autorickshaw drivers, students, teachers, doctors, labourers, etc will be the "chief guests".

The guest list put out by the AAP includes ''Delhi ke Nirmata''- people who contributed to the development of the city during the last five years.

These include Sumit Nagal, a Delhi government school student and an international Tennis player, Laxman Chaudhry an auto driver, Manu Gulati a teacher and "one of the many architects of Delhi Governance Model", Dalbir Singh a farmer, Ratan Jamshed Batliboi - the architect of the famous Signature Bridge among others.

By winning 62 seats by cashing in on the plank of development, his party nearly repeated its 2015 performance, sweeping the Assembly polls in the face of a high-voltage campaign by the BJP, which had fielded a battery of Union Ministers and Chief Ministers in its electioneering, spearheaded by Home Minister Amit Shah.

The BJP marginally improved its tally, managing just eight seats from its 2015''s tally of three seats. The Congress failed to open its account in the second successive election.

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News Network
June 23,2020

New Delhi, Jun 23: The Delhi High Court Tuesday granted bail to Jamia student Safoora Zargar, who is pregnant and was arrested under anti-terror law UAPA in a case related to communal violence in northeast Delhi during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, as Solicitor General Tushar Mehta did not oppose it on humanitarian grounds.

At the outset of the hearing, Mehta, representing Delhi Police, submitted that Zargar can be released on regular bail on humanitarian grounds and the decision has not been taken on merits of the case and should not be made a precedent.

Justice Rajiv Shakdher, who conducted the hearing through video conferencing, released Zargar, who is 23-week pregnant, on bail on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 10,000 and surety of like amount.

The court said she shall not indulge in any activity for which she has been charged with and shall not hamper the investigation or influence the witnesses.

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Agencies
February 11,2020

New Delhi, Feb 11: AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has won from New Delhi assembly seat. He polled 46,758 votes, which is 61.1 per cent of total votes polled in the high profile constituency.

Kejriwal defeated Sunil Kumar Yadav of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who polled 25,061 votes, which is 32.75 per cent of total votes polled. Congress candidate Romesh Sabhawarl could get only 3,220 votes.

So far, the AAP has won 55 seats and is leading on seven seats. The BJP has won seven seats and is leading on two. The Congress is nowhere in the reckoning.

As per the details on the website of Election Commission of India at 8.27 pm on Tuesday, the AAP has secured 53.60 per cent votes, BJP 38.49 per cent, BSP 0.71 per cent, CPI 0.02 per cent, CPI-M 0.01 per cent, Congress 4.27 per cent, JDU 0.90 per cent, LJP 0.35 per cent, NCP 0.02 per cent, and NOTA 0.46 per cent.

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