Non-operation of air services from the newly opened Veer Surendra Sai Airport at Jharsuguda, 55km from here, has led to an agitation being launched by the Congress on Tuesday.

Hundreds of Congress workers, led by Jharsuguda MLA Naba Das, resorted to two-day dharna in front of the airport, demanding regularisation of the daily flight and functioning of a full-fledged airport.

Das warned the Centre for playing with the sentiment of the people of Odisha by not providing air services, according to their commitments. “It was a pity that the scheme, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 22 with much fanfare by the Centre and the BJP, was not operating,” he said.

Das warned that the party would initiate a series of agitations from November if the airport did not start properly functioning by then.

The Air Odisha entrusted to operate the Bhubaneswar-Jharsuguda-Raipur route had operated only six days during this period. “The flight services have been stopped for the past 15 days,” airport director, Suresh Kumar Chouhan told The Telegraph. “We are always told that the flight has been cancelled because of technical reason,” he said when asked about the reason of cancellation.

The director also confirmed that the airliner was yet to start online booking of tickets. He failed to confirm the reason why it is yet to link the service to the online system.

Inaugurating the first flight to Raipur here, Modi had assured the local people of regular domestic flight services from Jharsuguda to many other cities of the country.

Former Assembly Speaker and chairman of the Western Odisha Development Council Kishore Mohanty said: “It is an insult to the people of west Odisha in particular and Odisha in general. If the regular flight could operate from Sikkim airport — which was inaugurated much after the Jharsuguda facility — to other cities and many airports of Gujarat, why it is a different picture in Odisha?”

“The Prime Minister is not serious about Odisha and came here for his political gain by making such pomp and show,” he said, adding that people would give a befitting reply to the BJP in the next Assembly elections.

Mohanty said that despite maximum support from the state government extended to the Airports Authority of India, the Centre is not serious about operating flight from this place. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who had attended the inaugural ceremony along with Modi, also said the state government would compensate the loss of non-booking of tickets. He also announced that the state would exempt electricity and water supply charges and pay charges of security personnel and fire brigade officials for five years.