Don’t make holy city of Amritsar ‘deport centre’, says Punjab CM Mann
The deportees who hail from other states will head to Delhi from Amritsar in a flight on Sunday morning and then they will be taken to their respective places, Mann said.
Chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday again attacked the Centre over the landing of US planes carrying illegal Indian immigrants at Amritsar airport and asked it not to make the holy city a ‘deport centre’.
A second US flight carrying 117 illegal Indian immigrants landed in Amritsar on Saturday night. On February 5, a US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal Indian deportees landed at the Amritsar airport.
The chief minister visited the airport on Saturday and said “Our vehicles are ready to take them to their places.”
The deportees who hail from other states will head to Delhi from Amritsar in a flight on Sunday morning and then they will be taken to their respective places, Mann said.
Talking to reporters at the airport, Mann said: “Do not make our holy city (Amritsar) a deport centre.”
“Amritsar is known for the Golden Temple, Durgiana Mandir, Ram Tirath temple, Jallianwala Bagh and Gobindgarh Fort. Will they allow landing (of deportation flights) at Vatican City, if they (deportees) hail from there?” Mann said adding that there are many airbases in the country and the flight can be landed at any one of them.
Asked whether the second batch of deportees will be in shackles, he said they do not have any information on this. The Centre should have sent its own plane to bring illegal Indian deportees, Mann added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have taken up the issue with US President Donald Trump and should have told him that India would send its own plane to bring them back, the chief minister said.
Other countries are sending their own planes to bring back deportees, he noted.
In response to a question, Mann said he is in touch with the Centre. “I still say divert it (this flight). They can land the plane at Hindon or Delhi airport,” he said.
Mann claimed that landing the military aircraft of a country like the US at a civil airport in the border state is wrong and could pose a danger to the country’s security. “But why was Amritsar chosen?” he asked rhetorically.
Replying to a question about BJP leader R P Singh’s post on X that Amritsar is the closest international airport for flights entering India from the US, Mann said if it is so, then why does the Centre not start international flights to the US from the Amritsar airport, which has been the state government’s demand.
Is it even logical that Amritsar is the closest airport, he asked.
On Friday, Mann questioned the decision to land another plane at the Amritsar airport and accused the Centre of trying to defame Punjab as part of a conspiracy.
Amritsar airport closest to US, claims BJP
BJP leader Tarun Chugh said on Saturday: “Bhagwant Mann saab, people of Punjab want to know how the innocent youths went out, why they had to go, who were those who spoiled their lives.”
BJP’s national spokesperson RP Singh also took a dig at Mann, and told him to stop politicising the issue.
“Amritsar is the closest international airport for flights entering India from the US. That’s why the plane carrying illegal immigrants is landing there. Stop politicising the issue and promoting conspiracy theories due to your lack of knowledge.@BhagwantMann,” Singh said in a post on X.
“Rather than giving jobs in Punjab, the ‘AAP-da’ party has only given deteriorating law and order,” Chugh said adding, “The Mann government has been in place for the past three years but it has failed to rein in fraudulent travel agents.”
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