By IANS,
New Delhi : Condoling the death of Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu in a helicopter crash, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday demanded that the government wake up and undertake a complete revamp of the Pawan Hans fleet.
“BJP condoles the tragic and untimely death of Arunanchal Pradesh chief minister and his four colleagues,” party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
“It is a wake-up call for the government to act immediately and start a total revamp of the Pawan Hans services,” he said.
The party demanded a “rigid inspection” of all 40 helicopters with Pawan Hans, government approval for the acquistion of 15 new helicopters worth Rs.600 crore and the phasing out of old helicopters.
The recent tragic accidents involving Pawan Hans helicopters, including the April 19 incident in which 17 passengers lost their lives and the April 30 crash that killed Khandu and four others, were the result “of total negligence of this vital air service of the central government”, the BJP leader said. Both crashes took place in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang area.
He said the national helicopter carrier had not acquired new helicopters in the past 25 years and continued to function with old machines.
“For these reasons, the Meghalaya government stopped operations of Pawan Hans in the state. Be it engineers and officials being ferried from Bombay High or pilgrims visiting Vaishno Devi and Amarnath, people using its services feel unsafe and pray to god for their safety.” Prasad said.