Kashmiri businessmen allege discrimination by Indian (Airlines)

Srinagar, Dec 14 (UNI) A large number of businessmen here claim to incur a loss of hundreds and thousands of rupees every month as their goods, meant for the Ladakh region, remain stranded for months together due to non-availability of cargo space in the once-a-week Indian (Airlines) flight to Leh.

Many of them claimed that the cargo space on Delhi-Srinagar-Leh flight was being filled at the starting point only to accommodate businessmen from the national capital.

Mr Shafqat Ahmed, a local businessman, alleged that the Indian (Airlines) was using discriminatory policy against the Kashmiri entrepreneurs and favouring their counterparts from Delhi.

''When we approach the Indian (Airlines) authorities here with cargo, they refuse us saying no space is available. We are told that the cargo had already been booked in Delhi and there is no space available for goods from Kashmir. This is happening for the past several months now,'' he said.

Ahmed said the goods from Kashmir take more than a month to get booked in the Indian (Airlines) cargo and claimed that he incurs a loss of Rs two lakh on this account every year.

''As the Srinagar-Leh national highway remains close for six months for all vehicular traffic, we are left at the mercy of Indian (Airlines). We all are heavily dependant on Indian for our business in Ladakh region,'' he added.

Mr Daljeet Singh, another businessman, said the airlines does not even carry essential commodities to Leh, as a result there is a skyrocketing of prices of food and other material.

''Essential commodities, including medicines, are not airlifted and the people of the region suffer a lot during the winter months. There is acute shortage of food and other items and some vested elements then resort to hoarding and black-marketing,'' he added.

Mr Singh said a large quantity of goods, mostly food items, get damaged as there were not adequate storage facilities in Srinagar.

At present, Indian operates five flights on the Leh sector in a week. While there are three weekly flights directly from Delhi to Leh, two are operated from Jammu to Leh and one from Delhi to Leh via Srinagar.

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