Chopper ride? Ministers skip Shillong meet

New Delhi: The helicopter crash that killed Y.S.R. Reddy seems to have made many politicians nervous about chopper rides, leading to the cancellation of a conference of ministers, industry and journalists in Shillong.
Ministers invited to the bi-annual Editor’s Conference on Social Sector Issues, scheduled on September 18 and 19, were not willing to risk monsoon helicopter flights to Meghalaya.
Officials said the team of ministers — all the social sector ministries usually attend the conference — was to have taken a plane from Delhi to Guwahati, and then fly to Barapani on a helicopter. Barapani airport, 32km from Shillong, has plane links only with Calcutta.
“All the ministers had given their dates last month, and we had made arrangements accordingly,” said an official of the rural development ministry, co-organiser of the conference with the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry.
Rural development minister C.P. Joshi was to inaugurate the conference, as is the convention, sources said. He had agreed, too, but last week handed over the task to Pradeep Jain, his junior.
Jain passed the job on to fellow minister of state Agatha Sangma, who is from Meghalaya, arguing she was the better choice as a representative of the Northeast. But Sangma declined the offer because she would be in the UK at the time to receive an Alumni Laureate Award from the University of Nottingham, the sources said. The organisers then contacted I&B minister Ambika Soni, who agreed before backing out.
“The ministers wanted to explore the possibility of a direct (plane) flight to Shillong; but there is no Delhi-Shillong direct flight,” the official said.
12/09/09 Cithara Paul/The Telegraph

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Sep 2009, Safety Sep 2009