Panel meets for 1st time on Covid-19

NEWDELHI: The first meeting of a parliamentary panel on the fallout of Covid-19 saw aviation, rail and tourism officials explaining the impact on their sectors to the committee on Wednesday.

While Air India CMD Rajiv Bansal earned praise for the evacuation of Indians from China, Iran and other places, the railway board chairman faced criticism for not providing documents or giving a proper presentation on how the railways is tackling the outbreak.

The members of the panel urged the officials to protect jobs of employees. The panel was informed that while hotels are reporting 80-90% cancellations, railways is facing cancellations,

MPs also suggested that masks should be distributed to all passengers traveling by air.

Some Opposition MPs also suggested that Prime Minister Narendra Modi meet with state CMs on the impact of Covid-19 and that central ministries discuss the same with respective state departments, especially health and tourism.

Earlier, IATO president Pronob Sarkar said that the body’s estimate of losses does not include domestic tourism, which has seen a huge slump. “Domestically, the loss is higher, and in the next two months, without a compensation and relief package in place, there could be losses running into lakhs. Our speculation is that without revenue, several big companies will cut down on staff.”

India clocked in 1.85 billion tourist visits (domestic as well as international) in 2019 according to the tourism ministry.

On Monday, Sikkim became the third state after Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland to close doors to foreign tourists.