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No provision for upgradation of Amritsar airport in Ninth Plan

Upgradation of the Raja Sansi airport in Amritsar at a cost of Rs 1.05 billion, sanction for which was made by the Deve Gowda government in 1997 on the eve of its departure, does not figure in the Union Civil Aviation Ministry's blueprint for the Ninth Plan.

Stating this at a press conference here on Friday, Lok Bhalai Party president Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, who is a member of parliamentary standing committee of the Civil Aviation Ministry in his capacity as member of the Rajya Sabha, or the Lower House of the Parliament, said Amritsar does not figure in the list of 26 airports in the country for which the ministry had budgetary allocation of Rs 10.78 billion to be spent in five years of the Ninth Plan which began in 1997-98.

Ramoowalia held the Prakash Singh Badal government responsible for this, claiming it did not pursue the matter with the Vajpayee government either in 1998 or now, despite being its political ally.

He further claimed that laxity of the Badal government in Punjab and ruling Akali Dal Members of Parliament resulted in the ''shelving of the project''.

This, he said, undermined the interest of three million Punjabis settled abroad, besides affecting the agriculture and industry of the state which otherwise would have got a fillip with the airport becoming a dry port for boosting exports from Punjab.

The project would have also generated direct or indirect employment for about 15,000 people, he added.

He admitted that no provision for budgetary allocation was made for the Amritsar airport project. He, however, alleged that of the Rs 1.05 billion meant for the Raja Sansi airport upgradation, Rs 600 million had been sent for upgradation of Bangalore airport and Rs 400 million for Jammu airport.

He recalled that Union Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav had laid the foundation stones for upgradation of airports at Jammu and Bangalore on March 12 and March 23, respectively.

He, however, admitted that allocations of Rs 1 billion for Bangalore and Jammu airports were outside the budgetary provisions of the ministry.

He had no answer when asked how it could be claimed that Rs 1 billion sent for Bangalore and Jammu airports were meant for Amritsar airport when neither the Ninth Plan document, nor budgets of three financial years of the five-year plan had any allocation for the Raja Sansi airport.

Ramoowalia argued that had Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal pursued the project seriously, the central government would have released funds for the project sanctioned by the Deve Gowda government and endorsed by the Gujral government.

UNI

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