₹50,000 fine...
However, before the investigation could be completed, the NGT issued an order on December 20, 2016, asking the DGCA to issue a circular to the airlines. “The expert committee, on the basis of physical inspection and examination of lavatory drainage systems of various types of aircraft, concluded that there did not exist a practical way to dispose lavatory waste from flights.
On the contrary, aircraft manufactures claimed that it is impossible to empty a toilet tank mid air. We had filed a counter affidavit, but on August 1 this year the NGT issued another order asking us to instruct the airlines. We cannot go against the court’s order,” the DGCA official said.
“The bio vacuum toilet of aircraft has three levels of protection and any leakage is extremely rare. Even after landing, if you open the tank, the waste has to be sucked out,” said a serving pilot requesting anonymity.
The DGCA has asked the airlines to follow the orders till its review petition is heard. gress has received feelers from Nitish Kumar’s camp. A senior Congress leader flew from Delhi to Mumbai last week to meet RJD veteran, Lalu Prasad and, according to an RJD associate, spoke about the growing disenchantment about the BJP in the JDU’S rank and file. “Prasad, however, remained unmoved,” said a third Congress leader.
In an earlier interview with HT, Lalu Prasad’s son and RJD president, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, said his party was ready to consider Ramvilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) or Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) as partners, but was firmly opposted to Nitish Kumar’s return .
An associate of Nitish Kumar maintained that while seat-sharing talks are on between the BJP and Kumar, the JDU is also perhaps keeping its options open. “Earlier, Kumar had kept the BJP subdued. But in this current government, the BJP certainly wields an upper hand as they know that Kumar has burned his bridges with the Opposition parties,” he said on condition of anonymity.
JDU leader KC Tyagi was confident that the BJP and JDU would be able to forge an alliance. “In the next few rounds, the two sides will seal the pact,” he told HT.
The Congress had agreed to a seat-sharing agreement with the SP in the last assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP coasted to a comfortable victory last year.
In Bihar for the 2015 state assembly polls, it forged an alliance with the RJD and JDU and the pact paid off, with their “grand alliance” stopping the BJP from coming to power, until Nitish Kumar’s volte face in 2017.
Afzal Amanullah, a political analyst and former parliamentary affairs secretary, said, “UP, Bihar and Maharashtra would be the key states that may decide the fate of the next election. If the Opposition wants to do well, they have to get a solid alliance in these states. But they will also face a lot of challenges.”
The Congress had agreed to a seat-sharing agreement with the SP in the last assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP coasted to a comfortable victory last year.
In Bihar for the 2015 state assembly polls, it forged an alliance with the RJD and JDU and the pact paid off, with their “grand alliance” stopping the BJP from coming to power, until Nitish Kumar’s volte face in 2017.