Sampla pitches for direct flight between Amritsar and London
PHAGWARA : The president of the Punjab unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party Vijay Sampla on Sunday sought re-introduction of a direct flight between Amritsar and London or Birmingham in the UK.
Talking to newsmen here, Sampla said the UK’s first turbaned Sikh member of Parliament Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi had also raised this demand with Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha in New Delhi recently.
Stating that Sinha’s response to Dhesi’s demand was positive, Sampla said during his meeting with the minister, Dhesi had argued that since both Amritsar and London were global tourist hubs, the reintroduction of Amritsar/Chandigarh and London/Birmingham direct flight will be beneficial for Punjabi diaspora, besides boosting tourism and economy of both countries.
Claiming that he had held a meeting with all officials concerned regarding commencement of domestic flight from Adampur to New Delhi from September 25, Sampla said the officials told him that they will give a final report between September 10 and 15 about the airworthiness of the route.
The BJP chief said a meeting of party leaders from nine assembly constituencies of Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat will be held on August 12 to discuss the matter of bypoll there as the seat had fallen vacant following Vinod Khanna’s demise on April 27. “I will get feedback from party MLAs, leaders and activists regarding possible candidate and discuss other issues related to bypoll,” he said.
“The meeting will either be held at Gurdaspur or Pathankot,” he said.