The Trinamul Congress and the BJP wrestled for credit of the commencement of flight services that started in Cooch Behar on Tuesday after a gap of six years.
While chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her party leaders claimed the service could be introduced because the state government had carried out infrastructure development at the Cooch Behar airport, those from the saffron camp asserted that it was because of the Centre’s initiative.
Mamata, who was in Siliguri on Tuesday, criticised the Centre for starting a nine-seater single-engine air service and said it is not safe to travel in such aircraft.
“BJP MLAs are travelling in a single-engine flight, which is not safe enough for travel. This flight can carry only nine passengers. We want flights with double engines,” the chief minister said while pointing out that the state has spent around Rs 300 crore to develop the airport’s infrastructure.
“We will build the infrastructure and they (the BJP) will only waive the flags to hog credit,” she added.
On Tuesday afternoon, a nine-seater aircraft of IndiaOne Air, a private airline company based in Ahmedabad, landed at the airport with five BJP MLAs of the district, from Calcutta. Four Trinamul leaders, who were supposed to accompany them, cancelled their trip at the last minute.
Earlier this month, Nisith Pramanik, the Cooch Behar MP and the Union minister of state for home, had announced that the airline company will run flight services between Cooch Behar and Calcutta. It was a longstanding demand of Cooch Behar residents to introduce flight services, as it is the farthest district from the state capital.
Accordingly, the flight took off from Calcutta, carrying Sukumar Roy, Malati Rava, Sushil Barman, Mihir Goswami and Nikhil Ranjan Dey – all BJP MLAs from the district. Rabindranath Ghosh, senior Trinamul leader and the civic chairman of Cooch Behar, along with three others, who were supposed to take the flight, said they would not join the BJP MLAs on the trip.
Pramanik was present at the airport to welcome them.
“It is because of the UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) scheme of the Centre that we could start flight services here,” he said.
Mamata, while speaking at the public distribution programme, also elaborated on the initiatives taken by the state government to improve air connectivity across Bengal.
“We will expand the Cooch Behar airport further so that more flights with larger carrying capacity can run from here. We are also working for the improvement of Malda airport and for Bagdogra, 108 acres have been handed over (to the AAI) for its expansion,” she said.
The tussle to stake claim on the credit was not limited to statements. In Cooch Behar, a number of festoons and hoardings were put up today by both sides, thanking the Prime Minister and the chief minister, respectively, for introducing the flight services.
Sources said the flight will run seven days a week. For the first three months, the fare on the Calcutta-Cooch Behar route has been fixed at Rs 999.
“Five passengers took the return flight to Calcutta today (Tuesday). From February 23, the service will be operational in a regular manner,” said a source.
Residents of Cooch Behar, however, are keeping their fingers crossed. In the past 12 years, similar services had started twice from the town but eventually, the airline companies stopped the services, citing a low turnout of passengers.
“Political parties can take the credit but we want an assurance that the service will not discontinue as it happened earlier,” said a resident.
