Congress slams 'excessive' airfare on evacuation flights

Congress on Tuesday slammed the Modi government for 'imposing excessive cost' on evacuating Indian national stranded in foreign countries.

“It is cruel that the central government has taken advantage of the plight of expatriates by increasing the airfares up to three times. This is inhuman,” AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal said.

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said Air India would operate 64 special flights between May 7 and May 13 from 12 countries to ferry Indian nationals stranded there back home.

However, single journey airfares on these flights would range from Rs 12,000 (ex-Dhaka) to Rs one lakh (ex-US), which will be followed by a 14-day paid quarantine in a government or institutional facility.

Venugopal urged the Centre to take urgent steps to provide free air travel to the most vulnerable, the unemployed, the sick and the pregnant, and others on normal fare.