Ludhiana gets air link; Congress, Akalis claim credit

LUDHIANA - It may boast of highest number of Mercedes and BMW cars and millionaires and billionaires but Punjab’s most industrialised city, Ludhiana, got air connectivity after years as an Alliance Air flight from New Delhi landed at the Sahnewal airport near here Thursday.

The maiden flight to this city, known as the Manchester of India for the number of industrial units here, mainly carried state politicians and a few industrialists.

The flight between Ludhiana and Delhi will operate daily.

But as soon as the plane landed here and the politicians alighted from it, politics over claiming credit for the new air service took over.

Ludhiana MP and the Congress party’s national spokesperson Manish Tewari claimed that the resumption of the flight, linking Ludhiana to New Delhi, after a gap of 10 years was due to his efforts and the help extended by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre.

Tewari even claimed that activists of Punjab’s ruling Akali Dal, who had gathered at the airport to welcome Punjab Deputy Chief Minister and Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal arriving by the inaugural flight, had acknowledged his (Tewari’s) efforts in getting the flight connectivity restored.

He claimed that the Ludhiana-Delhi flight was scrapped in 1999 during the rule of the Akali Dal in Punjab and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the centre.

Tewari said: “I don’t want to shout from the rooftops, as the Akalis are doing, to claim credit for resuming the flight between Ludhiana and Delhi. Even Akali Dal workers know who got the flight restored.”

A Punjab government statement claimed that the resumption of the flight was owing to the sustained efforts of the Akali Dal government in the state in the last three years.

Alighting from the flight, Badal said the Akali Dal had promised in its election manifesto to put Ludhiana and Bathinda on air map and he was satisfied that he has redeemed the promise.

Badal, accompanied by several MPs from the state, blamed the previous Congress governments, in Punjab and at the centre, for their failure to get air-connectivity for Punjab.