'Shameful Incident, Penalties Issued': Scindia On Passengers Eating On Tarmac At Mumbai Airport

Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the incident was unacceptable and that penalties were imposed on the airline as well as the airport.

Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the safety and security of citizens is primary for the government.

Source : PTI

New Delhi: Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Thursday reacted to the incident of passengers having food on the tarmac at Mumbai airport.

He said that the incident was unacceptable and that penalties were imposed on the airline as well as the airport, reported news agency PTI.

Speaking to reporters, he said, "Within hours of being informed or getting to know of that incident happening, beyond midnight, a meeting was held with all officials within the ministry. The showcause notice was issued immediately."

"The safety and security of citizens is primary for the government," he stated, adding that the fact that passengers were "inconvenienced and that they had to eat on the tarmac, apart from security being compromised across all points was unacceptable."

"This or any incident like this is unacceptable for us. Therefore, penalties were issued," he said, the PTI report added.

The minister pointed out that within three to four hours, notices were issued and within 24 hours, the necessary penalties were levied.

Scindia Hits Back At Shashi Tharoor

Amid a war of words over the chaos at the Delhi airport due to fog-related flight delays, Scindia hits back at Congress leader Shashi Tharoor and said that he has already responded to the claims of Congress leader "fairly and squarely."

"I think we need to move on from this. There are many friends and colleagues of mine who have all the time to go through research articles and try & put up misleading posts. I have answered those very fairly and squarely to the T in my response to that post yesterday. I don't think I need to clarify beyond that," the minister said, reported ANI.

Tharoor had attacked Scindia, saying he has adopted the Modi government's "uncaring attitude" to the public since he switched sides. 

On Wednesday, Tharoor, who engaged in a war of words on X, issued a series of six posts in a point-by-point rebuttal of Scindia's arguments and said the minister would be better served by shifting his focus from "my arm-chair and my diligent researchers to the agony of the passengers," reported PTI.

Scindia had also given a point-by-point rebuttal in an equal number of posts.

He had claimed on Wednesday that Tharoor is "lost in his esoteric world of thesaurus", and for him "data mining of selective press articles from the internet qualifies as "research".

Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport plunged into chaos on Monday, as dense fog disrupted flight operations, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded for hours.