India’s stand vague on Canada to India flights in Punjab

Recently a series of questions have been asked from the minister of civil aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia by AAP MP from Ludhiana Punjab regarding Canada to India flights to the Punjab region.

The legislator said the stance of the minister appeared evasive as he dodged many questions regarding flights to India from Canada.

AAP MP Arora, on the query regarding increasing flights between India and Canada from Amritsar, said the remarks of the ministers were dissatisfactory.

The AAP MP demanded the reasons of not including Amritsar and Mohali airports from the recently concluded Air pact between India and Canada which gives access to each other’s countries for any number of flights. To the reply of the Minister, the AAP MP appeared dissatisfied. He further quoted that the answer and attitude of the minister were completely evasive on the question.

Arora further said that there is a need to start an air service between Punjab and Canada as the maximum number of Indians living in Canada were Punjabis. The minister was keen on adding details of other countries which have direct flights from Amritsar and Mohali and avoided answering about the Open skies agreement signed between India and Canada, he added.

Meanwhile, activists said that not including any city from Punjab in the open skies agreement when most of Indians in Canada are Punjabis reflects the evil attitude of the center towards Punjab. Amritsar is the focal point and key destination for Punjabis, so leaving out Amritsar when other cities like Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Chennai have been added, hurts the sentiment of Punjabis and particularly Sikhs. President of Dilbir foundation, Gunbir singh said, “it is important to ponder that Amritsar attracts 35-40 million pilgrims annually and Punjab accounts for nearly 30 percent of international traffic at Delhi airport. How long will we continue the inconvenience to travelers, making them tug their Baggage for hours to a congested airport of the capital? It is now the time to do the needful”.

Earlier, Amritsar Vikas Manch(AVM), a nongovernmental organization expressed concern over the directive of the Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann when he directed the state civil aviation department to approach the union ministry of civil aviation to start direct international flights from Mohali airport to destinations in USA, UK, Canada.

“The recommendation of the chief minister seems to be nothing less than a conspiracy to obstruct the move in Canada to start Amritsar-Toronto, and Amritsar-Vancouver flights” the AVM had said stating that the government was completely ignoring the development of Amritsar airport.

A petition has been filed in the Canadian parliament to commence direct flights between Amritsar and Canada which has been signed by over 20000 respondents. Canadian parliamentarians Rubi Sahota and Brad vis have also favored beginning Amritsar-Toronto and Amritsar-Vancouver direct flights.

Recently Canadian transport minister Omar Alghabra also tweeted about his willingness to star Canada to India flights to Punjab but said that it needs approval from the Indian government.