International Tag to Mangalore Airport in Two Months - Can We Believe You, Dr Moily?

Mangalore, Sep 30: In yet another promise, union corporate affairs minister Dr M Veerappa Moily on Sunday September 30 assured that the Mangalore Airport would get the long-pending international tag in the next two months.

He was speaking to mediapersons at the Airport on his visit to the city on Sunday to meet Hajj pilgrims.

"The international tag to Mangalore Airport will be granted in the next two months," he assured.

"A meeting to finalize the grant of international status will be held in New Delhi on October 4," he added.

He also said that the air cargo terminal status will also be finalized in the next two months.

Speaking on the issue of Cauvery water-sharing, he said the state should be more vigilant and should have made proper approach to the Cauvery tribunal.

"The chief ministers of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have been called for a meeting. The issue can be resolved through dialogue," he said.

On speculations about former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa joining Congress, Moily chose to play safe, saying that though Congress wants only politicians with good background as it wants to give corruption-free administration, it is not totally averse to the idea as the party wants to come to power, and hence anyone with power is welcome to join.

Emigration Clearance Office in Mangalore Soon: J P Hegde

New Delhi, Sep 25: Karnataka state will soon get Protector of Emigrants (POE) office, according to Udupi - Chikmagalur member of parliament J P Hegde.

Currently, POE office for Karnataka is situated in Chennai. Karnataka has no dedicated office for the clearance of emigration. Hence most of the people based in coastal Karnataka who want to go abroad for job have to send their passports through agents to Mumbai or personally visit to clear the emigration formalities.

Thanks to the efforts put in by J P Hegde who has been consistently following up the issue with the central ministry concerned, the ministry has now given its nod for an office in Bangalore with a branch in Mangalore. The official letter from the ministry is awaited. This will help people of the entire region as they need not wait for days or weeks to get emigration clearance.

All Indian citizens whose passport has been categorized as “Emigration Check Required” (ECR) are required to obtain emigration clearance (EC) from the POE before proceeding to specified “ECR Countries” for the purpose of employment. As of now the passports of all those persons whose educational qualification is below metric are categorized as ECR passports. An endorsement (ECR seal/stamp/remark) to this effect is provided either in the second page or in the last page of the passport by the passport authorities at the time of issue of passports.

It may be recalled that Sarvotham Shetty, president, Karnataka Sangha Dubai had raised this issue with J P Hegde during the latter's visit to Dubai on April 18 this year. He had requested that the people of coastal region, specially those below metric education should not face hurdles when required to travel for a new job abroad.

Karnataka NRI Forum Rajesh Sequiera had pursued this issue further with J P Hegde and with the help of Dolphy D'Souza, a young political leader from Bantwal who is mostly based in New Delhi, was liaising with J P Hegde.


International Airport and Customs issues

Aviation minister Ajit Singh has assured J P Hegde through a written statement that official nod for Mangalore as an international airport should come anytime, at the same time the minister has confirmed that Jet Airways has applied for permission from the centre to fly directly from Dubai from this winter.

J P Hegde has forwarded the letter from Ajith Singh to Sarvotham Shetty and Rajesh Sequiera.

It is learnt that Jet Airways being an Indian carrier, can fly directly from abroad even without the 'international airport' tag for Mangalore Airport.

J P Hegde has seriously taken up the issue of Mangalore customs with the centre, specially the gold import allowance. "Due to complete disturbance of parliament session I could not take up this issue in the parliament," he said. However, union minister for excise and customs is expected to visit Mangalore along with Hegde soon for an overview of the current situation of Mangalore airport customs, as his office has been flooded with several complaints.

Hegde also said that the number of complaints have substantially reduced since mid-July this year.