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Zoramthanga[/caption]
Aizawl, June 24 (PTI): Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga has urged Union Civil Aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri to rationalise the airfare between Kolkata-Aizawl and Imphal-Aizawl sectors.
In a letter to Puri on Friday, Zoramthanga said the north eastern state has extremely poor air-connectivity with only seven flights a week between Aizawl and Kolkata, as compared to 91 flights a week from Kolkata to Imphal and Agartala.
"The airfare between Kolkata and Aizawl in comparison to airfare in other parts of the country for the same sector length and flying time is unrealistically high," he lamented.
Careful comparison of the airfare between Kolkata - Aizawl with other parts of the country "clearly revealed that the air flying time between the sector is neither governed by sector-length nor flying time," he said, adding that it was "arbitrarily fixed".
Such arbitrary fixation of air fare in the Kolkata- Aizawl sector (only Air India flights operate) adversely affects the entire population of Mizoram.
"Such arbitrary fixation of airfare is not only discriminatory, but it also deliberately violates the law of the land as enshrined in Article 14 of the Indian Constitution," the chief minister said.
Article 14 of the Constitution of India provides for equality before the law.
The extremely large difference in the airfare between Kolkata-Aizawl (Rs 16,716) and Kolkata-Imphal (Rs 3,916) is Rs 12,800 while the sector length is 241 nautical miles (Kolkata Aizawl) and 325 nautical miles (Kolkata-Imphal).
The airfare between Imphal-Aizawl, which is barely 90 nautical miles (flying time of 20 minutes) is Rs 7,950 which is far higher than Imphal-Kolkata fare of Rs 3,845, a sector distance of 325 nautical miles, and a flying time of one hour and 20 minutes, he said.