Flying ban on Shiv Sena MP Gaikwad: Centre working at various levels to defuse row

The Centre is looking at a multi-level strategy to deal with how unruly flyers should be dealt with.

This includes the Ministry of Civil Aviation plugging ‘grey areas’ in the 2014 Civil Aviation Requirements on Unruly Passengers, as these requirements have no clarity on whether there should be one list banning all unruly passengers or each airline should be allowed to maintain its own list.

Besides, there is no clarity as to which body will become the appellate authority for a person who has been included in such a list to appeal for removal from the list.

Sources in the Ministry of Civil Aviation indicated that plugging the grey area zone in 2014 CAR should not be viewed as India’s version of a ‘no-fly list.’

To defuse the situation, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has called a meeting with all the domestic airlines here on Tuesday. While officially the meeting is being termed as a routine one to discuss issues like domestic airlines shifting to Terminal 1 in Delhi and how the Centre’s regional connectivity scheme is being rolled out, it is unlikely that the incident involving Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad will not be taken up.

The importance being attached to the meeting can be gauged from the fact that Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju is likely to chair it.

The multi-pronged strategy is being considered after the flying ban on Gaikwad was raised in Parliament on Monday. Agencies quoted Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan as appealing for an amicable resolution to the issue.

Though she did not categorically call for the lifting of the ban, she pointed out that MPs need to attend Parliament and they cannot always travel by train.

At the political level, a view is emerging that “like minded political parties” can try and talk to the Shiv Sena to find common ground to get over the situation created by Gaikwad assaulting an Air India staffer.

Osmanabad, Gaikwad’s constituency, observed a bandh to protest against his “humiliation” as the MP stayed put at an undisclosed location. He said he has been asked by the Sena leadership to “keep quiet”.