ATC eye on campaign flight plans

Ranchi: Come election season, there is always a spurt in our politicians’ flights of fancy.
Not willing to let the poll budget soar, the state’s chief electoral officer (CEO) has directed air traffic control (ATC) units to keep a tab on choppers and chartered planes being used exclusively for campaigning ahead of the Lok Sabha election.
Officer on special duty at Birsa Munda Airport Dhananjay Tiwary said that all the ATC towers in the state operating under the Airport Authority of India (AAI) had been issued instructions. “We will maintain a separate diary for chartered flights being used for electioneering,” he said.
Tiwary maintained that the ATC towers would act as a third eye for the CEO Debashish Gupta’s office. “We will not co-ordinate with agencies (chartered flight service providers) for details, but monitor the campaign flights and submit the incoming/outgoing schedule to the CEO’s office,” he said.
Where the air space is unmanned or the ATC towers are maintained by private agencies — like Tata Steel in Jamshedpur — the district authorities have been entrusted with the task of reporting the flight schedule to the chief electoral officer as well as returning officers. Besides Jamshedpur, this arrangement will work for Godda, Deoghar and Dumka among other places.
Once they get the schedule, the respective returning officers of the 14 parliamentary constituencies will ascertain whether political parties are giving the correct details of their flight expenses.
17/03/09 Amit Gupta/The Telegraph

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Categories: Airports Mar 2009, Indian Aviation- In General Mar 2009