Clause in MoU on number of passengers playing spoilsport
Admn fails to work out mechanism for convenience of people
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Jan 18: The much-hyped helicopter service to mountainous districts of Poonch, Rajouri and Doda has turned out to be damp squib because of an ‘unwarranted’ clause in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on number of passengers and failure of the administration to work out mechanism for the convenience of the people.
The chopper service to Rajouri and Poonch from Jammu was launched on September 13, 2017 by the then PDP-BJP Coalition Government with much fanfare and it was officially stated at that time that helicopter service will connect the people of these districts with rest of the State especially during adverse weather conditions besides giving flip to the tourism in Poonch and Rajouri.
Similarly, the chopper service to Doda from Jammu was launched on October 24, 2017 and it was stated that this facility would be of immense help for the people for visit to winter capital especially during harsh weather conditions.
For the helicopter service to Rajouri, Poonch and Doda subsidized air fare was fixed by the administration in consultation with Pawan Hans, a premier national helicopter carrier in India, under the scheme of the Union Government.
However, the helicopter service to headquarters of these three districts has turned out to be damp squib mainly because of the condition on number of passengers, official sources told EXCELSIOR while disclosing that as per the Memorandum of Understanding Pawan Hans will not operate the chopper unless minimum five passengers are available for one sortie at a time.
“There are numerous occasions when four persons approached the Nodal Officers either in Rajouri, Poonch and Doda or in Jammu to avail the chopper service but at the last moment they were conveyed that for want of required number of passengers sortie cannot be operated”, sources informed.
They further said, “due to this the people desirous of availing chopper service are compelled to post-pone their scheduled journey”, adding “the condition about number of passengers led to decline in the interest of the people in availing chopper service and made the service inoperative”.
This can be gauged from the fact that the last sortie to Doda from Jammu was made in 2017 while as the Pawan Hans last operated helicopter to Rajouri and Poonch in October and November last year, sources informed, adding “due to helicopter service turning out to be damp squib even proper helipads and other paraphernalia could not be developed in these three districts”
“Similar is the fate of Jammu to Kishtwar chopper service, which was launched in April 2017”, sources further informed. However, Pawan Hans is operating chopper between Kishtwar-Dachhan, Kishtwar-Marwah and Kishtwar-Inshan after regular intervals as because of these areas being snow-bound majority of the people are availing this facility.
They further said, “it seems that certain politicians were in hurry in launching the service to convey to the people that they were really interested in translating their promise into reality”, adding “had a detailed exercise been conducted the service would have not turned to be damp squib within a short span of time”.
Admitting that condition vis-à-vis availability of minimum passengers at one time was the main reason behind non-operation of chopper service, sources said, “the issue was also discussed at some level in the Government and even it was decided to revisit agreement with Pawan Hans so that solution is found to the concerns of the people but no follow up exercise was conducted”.
Stressing that State Government should take up the issue with Union Government also, sources said, “either some solution should be found to the impediment in availing of service by the people or the facility should be stopped with formal orders”, adding “even awareness is required to be created about the chopper service to these areas so that required number of people come forward. Moreover, Tourism Department should work out some mechanism for attracting tourists to these districts by availing chopper service”.
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