New Delhi: When Central Industrial Security Force constable Roshni Halkar was posted to the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on security duties, she didn’t imagine she would one day have to babysit a lost infant.
But Halkar had to cuddle a two-month-old girl left behind at a cafeteria in the airport lounge by absent-minded parents who had stopped for coffee after flying in from Mumbai and walked away without their daughter.
The cafeteria’s staff alerted the CISF when the unattended infant began wailing. But the couple realised the baby was missing only when they reached their home in Ghaziabad, two hours away.
They frantically rushed back to the airport where they found the girl — now pacified — in Halkar’s arms.
The forgetfulness of fliers touching airports across the country has reached new heights, with the left-behind baby perhaps the most bizarre example.
“Passengers lose luggage worth crores in airports across the country every year and the trend is growing. It was about Rs 23 crore last year,” CISF director-general Arvind Ranjan told The Telegraph.
Constables and officers with the CISF, which handles security across India’s 59 civilian airports, routinely pick up mobile phones, laptops, jewellery, wallets, handbags and even wads of cash. The value of luggage lost in the past three years is estimated at Rs 60 crore.
“Sometimes, the passengers don’t even realise they’ve lost something,” said Sudeep Sinha, CISF deputy inspector-general at the IGI airport.
10/03/14 Imran Ahmed Siddiqui and GS Mudur
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But Halkar had to cuddle a two-month-old girl left behind at a cafeteria in the airport lounge by absent-minded parents who had stopped for coffee after flying in from Mumbai and walked away without their daughter.
The cafeteria’s staff alerted the CISF when the unattended infant began wailing. But the couple realised the baby was missing only when they reached their home in Ghaziabad, two hours away.
They frantically rushed back to the airport where they found the girl — now pacified — in Halkar’s arms.
The forgetfulness of fliers touching airports across the country has reached new heights, with the left-behind baby perhaps the most bizarre example.
“Passengers lose luggage worth crores in airports across the country every year and the trend is growing. It was about Rs 23 crore last year,” CISF director-general Arvind Ranjan told The Telegraph.
Constables and officers with the CISF, which handles security across India’s 59 civilian airports, routinely pick up mobile phones, laptops, jewellery, wallets, handbags and even wads of cash. The value of luggage lost in the past three years is estimated at Rs 60 crore.
“Sometimes, the passengers don’t even realise they’ve lost something,” said Sudeep Sinha, CISF deputy inspector-general at the IGI airport.
10/03/14 Imran Ahmed Siddiqui and GS Mudur
