New Delhi, August 24
With elections round the corner in Maharashtra, the Civil Aviation Ministry has shot down a proposal to name Nagpur airport after the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) founder, Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar. Instead, it has taken a decision to christen it Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar airport.
The Ministry has also decided to upgrade Nagpur airport to an international airport.
Minister for Civil Aviation Praful Patel who is from the NCP, which has high stakes in the forthcoming Maharashtra elections, told The Tribune: “Yes, we have sought the Cabinet’s approval for this decision. As Dr Ambedkar took Diksha in Nagpur, it is a sentimental issue.”
Sources say the Aviation Ministry was in a tearing hurry to ensure the christening. Significantly, the airport does not have enough traffic to justify widening the runway and strengthening the infrastructure to upgrade it to an international airport. The work involves enormous cost which will have to be borne by the state exchequer.
Upgrading of the airport would also involve setting up of immigration and customs counters. Under the rules, it is mandatory to carry out a techno-financial survey along with the projected increase in traffic before giving an airport international status.
Officials involved with the decision say in this case there is virtually no projected increase in international flights to justify the decision. In fact, there is no demand from any international carrier that it wants to fly to Nagpur.
Says a senior official: “Every politician wants to use this ministry as his milch cow to hand out election sops. When the National Democratic Alliance was in power, a series of decisions favouring Bihar were taken. Now it is the turn of Maharashtra.’’
It would be worth mentioning that all the ministers who held the aviation portfolio in the NDA government, including Mr Sharad Yadav, Mr Shahnawaz Hussain and Mr Rajiv Pratap Rudy, were from Bihar.
The RSS which has its headquarters at Nagpur was trying to ensure the naming of the airport after its founder. Several NDA MPs had petitioned the Aviation Ministry to change the name.
However, just before the final nod could be given to the proposal, the elections came and the model code of conduct prohibited any such decision.
With the Veer Savarkar issue already polarising the two camps, the Congress and the NCP have decided not to take any chances with Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party’s decision to contest all the seats in Maharashtra.
Dalits form a sizeable percentage of the population in the Vidarbha region of the state. Both the Congress and the NCP fear that the BSP would make a dent in their traditional vote banks in this stronghold of Dalits.
