Produce request letter for chartered flight: CIC

RTI activist says Alliance Air has only partly complied with order

Serving a show-cause on Alliance Air, the Central Information Commission has directed the Central Public Information Officer to “disclose the name of the person/body/organisation making the request for the chartered flight,” which was operated in 2010, after cancelling the scheduled service. This chartered operation was allegedly to facilitate a service carrying the daughter of a former Civil Aviation Minister and a few members of an Indian Premier League team.

This direction comes as Right to Information activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal complained that the public sector company had only partly complied with the CIC order.

When the company said it had made a call to its call centre to change the flight allotment, Mr. Agrawal sought the details of the communication, documents and file notings. The company refused to disclose them as also the names of the officials who gave and received the orders.

Hearing an appeal, the CIC noted that the company, to protect its commercial confidentiality, had the right not to disclose the terms and conditions of the agreement it signed with India Cements Limited. But “the commission finds no reason to deny the rest of the information requested by the appellant.”

The CIC has directed the company to provide India Cement Limited's request letter for the chartered flight, file notings and documents about the decision within a fortnight.

Referring to a newspaper report, Mr. Agrawal had said in his application: “A Union Minister has no right to run a public sector undertaking like his private business firm by making it dance to the requirements of his family members. However, if the news report is wrong, it will rather clear the position of all concerned, including Alliance Air and the Union Minister. Therefore, it is in the interests of all, including the public interest, to reveal the sought information.”

Fog covers part of Delhi, flight ops unaffected at IGI

Flight operations were largely unaffected at the Indira Gandhi International airport in New Delhi which witnessed shallow fog on Tuesday morning. Though some flights were delayed, it was due to poor weather conditions at the destinations. Most of the flights departing were largely on schedule, an airport official said.

Flights mostly to cities like Lucknow, Port Blair, Kolkata, Patna, Chandigarh were delayed due to poor weather conditions there.

Though the Met Department had predicted dense fog and issued a warning, the airport largely remained free from fog with runway visibility above 2,000 metres on the main runway through the night.

But the visibility started to dip around 8.30am.

The visibility at the new runway (29/11) and second runway (27/09) was low, forcing authorities to implement low visibility procedures.

According to Met Department, this is a temporary relief as western Disturbance (WD) is passing through the region due to which city experiences easterly winds during the day and Westerly during the nights.

"The situation would become clear by December 23 or 24 when WD would pass away. We have been issuing fog warning as fog had enveloped whole of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh since December 6," a Met Official said.

On Monday, more than 50 flights were delayed as dense fog blanketed the airport causing inconvenience to passengers.

Meanwhile, poor visibility also led to a 10-car pile-up on the Greater Noida Expressway at around 4.30am on Tuesday morning.

The collisions took place due to a container truck that broke down in the middle of the road.

Around 200 trains were affected on Monday due to dense fog. The situation is expected to worsen for rest of the 2011 and first 15 days of January 2012.

Man held for viewing child porn on US flight

Police say a man who was viewing child pornography on a domestic airline flight from Salt Lake City to Boston has been arrested.

Massachusetts State Police say 47-year-old Grant Smith was sitting in first class Saturday afternoon when a fellow passenger saw the pornographic images on

Smith's laptop and alerted the flight crew.

When the Delta flight landed at Boston Logan International Airport just after 4pm, troopers interviewed Smith and subsequently arrested him.

He has been charged with possession of child pornography, and police say additional charges could follow. His bail is set at $15,000. He is scheduled to be arraigned Monday.

Smith was in police custody Saturday night and couldn't immediately be reached for comment.