NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday issued a three-line whip to all its MPs of Lok Sabha to be present in the House on Friday to discuss legislative business.
“BJP issues a line whip to all its MPs of Lok Sabha to be present in the house on December 8, 2023 as some very important legislative business will be taken up for discussion and to support the government’s stand”, a BJP official release stated.
Earlier today, citing the huge losses faced by the airlines due to the impact of coronavirus on the aviation sector, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in Lok Sabha said that even in that scenario, airlines have operated on a sustainable model.
Replying to the question raised by IUML MP E T Mohammed Basheer on the issue of air fare hikes and whether the government has any control over it, Jyotiraditya Scindia said, “Civil aviation is a seasonal sector. You have a high season and you have a low season. From October till mid January, it’s a high season and after that, it’s a low season until May, June after when again holiday season starts. This is not limited to India alone, this is a global phenomenon, we have monitored fare and we have a tariff monitoring unit that looks at 60 routes randomly”.
He further said that airlines have made losses of about Rs 55,000 crore to Rs 1,32,000 crore on an annual basis recently. He informed the Lower House that there is a decline in fares across most routes for months of January to October in the year 2022 and the same trend was witnessed from January to October 2023.
To a question raised by the Revolutionary Socialist Party’s N K Premachandran on whose is the authority for regulatory mechanism, Scindia said, “Civil aviation is a deregulated sector. It was deregulated in the year 1993. We do have a Tariff Monitoring Unit that monitors 60 routes on a random basis. When we find there is excessive pricing we convey that to airlines,” he said.
The winter session of the Parliament began on December 4 and will culminate on December 22. (ANI)