TC MP questioned at IGI airport for carrying Rs 57 lakh

NEW DELHI: A Trinamool Congress MP was stopped at the Indira Gandhi International airport here after he was found carrying Rs 57 lakh but was later allowed to go after he informed authorities that the money belonged to his company, sources said here today. 

Kanwar Deep Singh, the Rajya Sabha MP from Jharkhand and owner of Alchemist Group, was stopped after CISF officials found that he was carrying a large amount of money, the sources said. He was on his way to Guwahati. 

The CISF officials informed Air Intelligence Unit of the Income Tax department, who found that he was carrying Rs 57 lakh, they said. He was accompanied by seven others in a private plane. 

Sources said Singh was allowed to go after questioning after he informed the officials that the money belonged to his company. 

Airport officials have stepped up checking after the Bureau of Civil Aviation has instructed them to keep a strict vigil on movement of cash in view of the upcoming Assembly elections. Incidentally, Singh was on way to election-bound Assam. 

The Alchemist Group comprises 11 companies in various sectors such as food processing, health care, hospitality, food and beverages, steel, real estate and infrastructure development. 

Reacting to the development, CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat said her party has demanded that the government should take notice of this and file a criminal case against him and take required action.

"This is the immorality of Trinamool. If they can do it in Assam, where they have no presence, you can imagine what they are going to be doing in Bengal. It is a shameful thing that has happened," she said.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/TC-MP-questioned-at-IGI-airport-for-carrying-Rs-57-lakh/articleshow/7786386.cms

IAF aircraft to join evacuation operations from Libya

NEW DELHI: As Libya swiftly descended into civil war, India decided to use an Il-76 transport aircraft of the IAF to ferry stranded citizens. From Thursday, the "Gajraj" aircraft will ferry people between Sirde in Libya and Cairo. 

A wide-bodied aircraft has also been requisitioned by Air India to ferry people out of Sebha, sources said. 

Sirde and Sebha are two towns with 2,000-strong concentrations of Indians each. 

Officials acknowledged that India had been slow to start evacuation, but was currently taking out about 1,000 people every day and promised to complete the process by next week. 

Even as China seemed on the verge of completing evacuation operations in Libya, having already pulled out over 32,000 of its nationals from the country, India only had a little over 6,000 evacuees to show for its efforts till Wednesday evening. The Chinese figure of 32,000 evacuees, mostly being doled out by official news agencies, however, seemed to have stirred a debate with foreign secretary Nirupama Rao herself saying that there was "no clarity'' over the number of Chinese evacuees. 

"Incidentally, no real clarity about nos. of Chinese evacuees so far,'' said Rao in a tweet on Wednesday evening. Earlier in the day, she tweeted, "India has chartered ships and aircraft. Please believe me when I say this. I will not comment on the Chinese statistics.'' 

Close to 12,000 Indians though are still stranded in the country, many of them in the interiors who are finding it increasingly difficult to reach Tripoli from where evacuation flights are operating. 

A ship, MV Scotia Prince, carrying 1,188 Indians docked in Alexandria on Wednesday night. After their papers are processed, they will travel back to India on EgyptAir flights. The ship will turn around to go back to Benghazi, reaching on March 5 to pick up another 1,100 Indians. 

A second ship may be put into service in a more sensitive part of Libya where some Indians are stuck. 

Officials said Indian companies were actually sending their managers back into Libya to help bring back their employees. This is very different from companies from other countries who are leaving their Asian employees behind. 

Three flights -- two Boeing 747s and one Airbus-330 -- brought back 1,045 Indians from Tripoli early Wednesday. Another three flights have left for Tripoli and are expected to ferry back 1,002 people. Three daily flights to Tripoli will continue over the coming days and these may be stepped up, said the foreign ministry. 

Separately, a chartered flight carrying 78 Indians from Sirde (Libya) reached Larnaca ( Cyprus) on Tuesday evening. These people will be booked on commercial flights to India. 

So far 126 Indians have left Libya in small numbers on their own, in coordination with Indian missions in and around Libya, the MEA said. As many as 267 Indians have, by now, crossed over to Salloum ( Egypt) by the land route and the Indian embassy in Cairo has already facilitated the return of some 180 of them in batches, to Mumbai by regular Gulf Air flights, it said. 

Also, close to 1,400 people persons have reached Djerba in Algeria, where the Indian embassy staff from Tunis have put them up in hotels. 

Read more: IAF aircraft to join evacuation operations from Libya - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/IAF-aircraft-to-join-evacuation-operations-from-Libya/articleshow/7613076.cms#ixzz1FVRo3IoH

Delhi, Hyderabad among top ranked airports of the world

New Delhi:  The airports of Delhi and Hyderabad have been ranked among the top airports of the world in the airport services quality (ASQ) by the global body, Airports Council International (ACI).

While Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi Airport retained the number one position for the second year in a row among 49 airports handling 5-15 million passengers per annum (mppa), Indira Gandhi International Airport came fourth in a group of 19 airports in the 25-40 mppa category.

Mumbai's CST International Airport, run by GVK-led consortium, ranked in the 15-25 mppa category, the ACI said.

While the Indian airports ranked among the top in different categories, the ACI declared Incheon in Seoul, Changi in Singapore, airports in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai Pudong as the overall top 'best airports worldwide'.

The rankings were done on the basis of a global ASQ survey by the ACI of 153 airports, including 6 Indian ones.

The survey, which gets a representative sample of flights, destinations and passenger groups served by the airport, is intended to get feedback from users on a range of service delivery parameters. ACI audits the process to ensure compliance and validates the results.

The awards will be formally presented in April at the ACI's Asia-Pacific Regional Conference to be held here.

This was announced by P S Nair, who has been promoted as CEO (Corporate Airport Sector) of the GMR Group which leads the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) consortium.

Till last month, he was the DIAL CEO.

In DIAL, Nair was replaced by I P Rao while the Hyderabad airport, also run by GMR-led joint venture, now has Vikram Jaisinghani as its CEO.

Nair said the Hyderabad airport has improved on its ASQ rating which now stands at 4.51 and retained the top slot in its category consecutively for the second year.

On the IGI airport, he said the ASQ ratings improved "immensely" after the plush new Terminal-3 became operational last year.

To questions, he said a few areas on which the Delhi airport was lacking included value for money, inadequate shopping facilities and the ease of reaching the airport. "We are looking to improve these areas," Nair said.

ACI Director General Angela Gittens said airports in the Asia Pacific "made clean sweep" in the category of 'best airports worldwide' as they did last year.

Source:-http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/delhi-hyderabad-among-top-ranked-airports-of-the-world-85940