Flight snag delays journey of ministers, MLAs to Belagavi

Four ministers, Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee and several legislators on their way to attend the winter session of the State legislature in Belagavi were stranded at the Kempegowda International Airport for more than four hours on Tuesday with their SpiceJet flight developing technical snag.

The winter session of the State legislature was scheduled to start on Tuesday and ministers T B Jayachandra, R Ramalinga Reddy, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Vinay Kumar Sorake and several legislators besides Mukherjee had booked ticket for the 7:45 am flight to Belagavi.

Their plan was to reach Suvarna Soudha in Belagavi, the venue of the session, by 11 am.

However, they were informed that there was a technical snag in their flight and would be delayed by a few minutes. However, the minutes ticked by and the wait continued. Reddy said he had opted for the flight as it was only one available from Bengaluru to Belagavi.

Jayachandra said he had several official engagements in Bengaluru on Monday evening and had opted for the Tuesday flight. A replacement flight could be arranged only at 11:30 am.

It was afternoon by the time they landed in Belagavi and their ordeal was not to end. They had a tough time reaching Suvarna Soudha due to protests by farmers and the BJP.  
They remained stuck in traffic for nearly two hours. Later, the police took steps to get the traffic cleared for the ministers.
DH News Service