Won’t allow PM’s plane to land in Kota: BJP MLA

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Bhawani Singh Rajawat threatened to not let aircraft of VIPs, including that of the Prime Minister, land in Kota, expressing displeasure over lack of air connectivity to the city.

Speaking at the inauguration of a post office passport seva kendra (POPSK) here -- the state’s first -- on Sunday, Rajawat asked the people what would they do with the passport centre if there were no flights at the airport in the town.

“Kota’s airport appears to be meant for political leaders and not people of Kota as only small aircraft of political leaders can land here,” said the MLA from Ladpura in Kota district.

“Let us decide that we will not let aircraft of VIPs land in Kota even if the aircraft of Prime Minister arrives here,” he said.

His statement came a day after Upendra Kushwaha, the junior minister for human resource development in the Narendra Modi government, said the Prime Minister should not have held a road show for the Uttar Pradesh assembly election.

Rajawat had earlier courted controversies for his statements.

After an altercation between BJP workers, led by party legislator Chandrakanta Meghwal, and policemen in Kota on February 19,Rajawat said he would have wrung the neck of the police personnel if he was present at the spat site.

Earlier, he called for shooting of crocodiles of the Chambal River after they posed a menace to the people of his constituency.

He had also opposed wearing of helmets.

Rajawat told Kota parliamentarian Om Birla to urge the Prime Minister to set up a new airport in Kota.

“If the PM doesn’t agree to his demand, he (Birla) should stage a sit-in,” the MLA said.

Rajawat was all praise for state Congress president Sachin Pilot for ensuring the setting up of an airport in his constituency, Ajmer.

“Although he (Sachin) belongs to a different political party, I must acknowledge that Ajmer’s small town Kishangarh got an airport in Sachin Pilot’s tenure as Ajmer MP,” he said.

When Birla took to the dais, he promised that the foundation stone of a new airport would be laid during the Modi government’s tenure and announced that flights from the existing airport would resume by 2018.

Flights from the Kota airport were discontinued in 1994 owing to lack of sufficient air traffic and other reasons.

Resumption of flight operations from Kota has been an old demand of people of the industrial and coaching city.