Air service demand

 

COOCH BEHAR, Aug. 17: Resumption of air services from the Cooch Behar airport, scheduled for the Independence Day, was postponed. No aircraft had landed at the Cooch Behar Airport or took off from there on that day. But the business community of Cooch Behar is not ready to accept it easily.

 

Terming the postponement of resumption of air service as dejection the secretary of Industrial Federation of Cooch Behar (IFC) Mr Depak Mundra demanded intervention of Union civil aviation minister Mr Praful Patel into the matter. He demanded resuming of air service as early as possible from Cooch Behar Airport in the interest of improvement of trade, commerce and industry of this region.

 

Secretary of Cooch Behar District Merchants Chamber of Commerce (CDMCC) Mr Rajendra Kumar Baid too demanded intervention of the Union civil aviation minister Mr Praful Patel and state chief minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. He threatened that if the authorities concerned fail to resume the air service by 15 September they will have to call a 24-hour bandh in Cooch Behar district as a mark of protest.

 

District Trinamul Congress president Mr Rabindra Nath Ghosh said that the authorities had promised several times about resumption of air service but those promises were not kept till now. This time too they repeated the same thing. Now it is hard to believe that air service from Cooch Behar ever be possible. Cooch Behar is a downtrodden and neglected area for a long and the government too is not eager to improve the situation. He alleged that no agreement was signed between Airport Authority of India and any operator about flights so far. At first an operator should agree to fly their aircrafts and then one should promise of resumption of air service, he said. "Catch fish at first and them promise us serving of fish fry," Mr Ghosh ridiculed.

 

District BJP president Mr Nityananda Munsi too criticised the governments both at state and Centre for their failure to resume the much awaited air service from Cooch Behar Airport.   

 

When asked, district magistrate of Cooch Behar Mr Rajesh Kumar Sinha said he has no new information about the resumption of flights from Cooch Behar Airport. []