India extends ban on int'l commercial flights till Nov 30
Darpan News Desk IANS, 29 Oct, 2021 11:07 AM
New Delhi, Oct 29 (IANS) To deal with the ongoing Covid pandemic, India's civil aviation regulator on Friday extended the ban on scheduled international commercial flights till November 30.
In the notification, the Directorate General of Central Aviation (DGCA), however, said: "This restriction shall not apply to international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by the DGCA."
It also said that scheduled international flights might be allowed on selected routes on a case to case basis.
The Central government had banned the operation of international flights on March 23 last year to contain and control the spread of Covid-19.
Flight restrictions, however, were later eased under air bubble arrangement with certain countries. At present, India has formed air bubble pacts with about 28 countries.
The country had been operating Vande Bharat flights to many countries over the last one year to evacuate stranded Indians.
Calling the Congress as the only party who protested against these 'black' laws from the very first day, the Chief Minister said his government called an all-party meeting and then held consultations with farm unions.
The highly specialised medical services to be rolled out across the state by end November will prove to be a boon for people, especially the poor for whom expert private sector medical care is out of reach, he said.
The Minister while addressing the inaugural session of 'Connect Karo 2021 - Towards Equitable, Sustainable Indian Cities' event, said that there can be no doubt that India's cities "enabled by citizen-centric infrastructure and transformational technology" will be the key to achieving the nation's development objectives.
Meanwhile, India logged 27,254 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours. The country also reported 219 Covid deaths in the same time span. The country presently has nearly 3.75 lakh active cases.
At a virtual Covid-19 review meeting, the Chief Minister said vaccine effectiveness is evident from the data being analysed. Special efforts were made to reach out to the government employees, and those who continue to avoid getting vaccinated will now be asked to go on leave till they get the first dose.
DGP Dinkar Gupta said with the case load decreasing, people had started being lax about wearing masks, which the Health Department should strictly enforce with the help of the police.
