DOMESTIC FLIGHT OPS RESUME FROM PATHANKOT
PATHANKOT: Domestic flights resumed from Pathankot after a gap of around seven years, with an Alliance Air flight landing at the airport on Thursday.
The 70-seater airbus, which took off from Delhi at 10am, touched down at around 11am. The flight was received here by Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh. The flight will shuttle between Delhi and Pathankot thrice a week on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. From Pathankot, it departed for Delhi at noon. Amarinder, who is to attend a programme in Gurdaspur to waive off loans of farmers on Thursday, will also lay the foundation stone of a Pepsico plant in Pathankot.
Built at a cost of ₹37 crore over 11 years ago, the Pathankot airport had domestic flight operations for around two-and-a-half years. Air Deccan, a private airline, ran its service, but suspended its operations due to poor occupancy of its flights.
Later, Air India also agreed to operate on this sector and started its flights in 2010, thanks to the efforts of then Gurdaspur MP Vinod Khanna. But it did not carry on for long. The airline halted its operations from the airport a year later in 2011, citing losses. And, there has not been any domestic flight since then.
The runway of the airport is being used by the army to transport goods and personnel off and on.
A plant for a soft-drink MNC was also inaugurated i n Pathankot on Thursday.
“The state government has given 41 acres of land (for the plant). Till now, industrialists were not keen to set up units here but things will change now. The plant will not only provide employment to nearly 2,000 people but also enhance the incomes of farmers, “Congress MLA Amit Vij said. NEWDELHI: Nepal’s Prime Minister K P Oli arrives in Delhi on Friday. The visit comes after three years of deep acrimony between India and Oli and about six months of an intense effort by the two to patch up.
THE DISCORD
The differences are now well-documented. India strongly criticised the Nepali constitution in 2015, claiming it did not address the concerns of the people of the Tarai. Oli, a key architect of the constitution, defended it. India backed a blockade by the Madhesis to cripple supplies to Kathmandu to generate pressure. Oli, as PM, used it to stoke ultranationalism and shift Nepal’s orientation towards China. India cobbled together a coalition of the Nepali Congress, Maoists and Madhesi forces to topple Oli.
Oli, backed by China, allied with the Maoists and won elections late last year.
How was it that despite this turbulence, Delhi and Oli arrived at a working relationship?
THE RAPPROCHEMENT
A little before the Nepal elections in November-december, a senior Indian political interlocutor visited Kathmandu.
Over an extended meeting, the then leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), K P Oli explained reasons for his unhappiness -- the primary ones being how Delhi had tried to stop him from becoming PM in 2015 and toppled his government in 2016, despite the fact that he was ‘India’s closest friend’ in Nepal. The Indian intermediary conveyed to him that India had no intention of doing so, Delhi would stay neutral in the election, and work with him if elected, but in return, Oli must drop the ‘anti India’ positioning.
Oli’s party, in alliance with the Maoists, swept the polls.
At various levels, Delhi’s engagement with Oli intensified.
The same interlocutor met him in Bangkok and reiterated India would work with his government. On his part, Oli pledged he would stick to tradition and make his first visit to India as a sign of his commitment to close ties.
PM Narendra Modi spoke to Oli thrice ; External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited Kathmandu before the Oli government took over and, defying protocol, spent most of her time with UML leaders. Besides, the Indian ambassador to Nepal - senior diplomat Manjeev Puri - has been on a charm offensive to woo Oli.
Oli’s India visit is a culmina-