Apex Court irked over lack of air connectivity to Shimla, Northeast

Supreme Court on Tuesday took strong note of lack of air connectivity to places in the North East and Shimla and rapped the government and Air India for “promoting interests” of private operators.

“Is it not part of your policy guidelines to provide services to far-flung places like North East and Shimla,” a bench comprising Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice R Banumathi asked.

“You (government/Air India) are only promoting interests of operators and you don’t think about connectivity,” it said, adding that the private operators have been granted licenses as “largesse” and they were interested in “lucrative” routes like Mumbai-Delhi.