Rajya Sabha MP Demands Action On High Gulf Air Fares During Holiday Season

Air fares to Gulf countries during the June to September holiday season have risen five-fold, causing financial hardships to poor labourers and the middle class migrants who want to visit India, a Rajya Sabha member said on Monday, asking the government to stop this “organised loot”.

Raising the issue through a Zero Hour mention in the House, Jebi Mather Hisham (Congress) said June-September is normally a school holiday season in the Middle East countries but this has turned into a “horror season” due to the “exorbitant, exploitative and extortionist” airfares implemented by the airlines.

“We call it organised loot because it (the fare hike) has not doubled or tripled but has increased by more than five times,” she said.

Against the one-way fare of Rs 8,000 from Gulf countries to Kerala, a poor labourer is now having to shell out Rs 46,000 one-way and about Rs 1 lakh for return fare.

“How will the poor labourer pay, sir,” she said. “If a middle-class family of four has to travel, they have to ordinarily pay Rs 36,000 (but) now it will come up to Rs 3.64 lakh.” The poor and the middle class who are toiling hard in the Middle East countries to bring in remittances are being put to such financial hardship by airlines jacking up fares in the months when they would normally visit India, she said.

Jebi Mather Hisham, who has been elected to the Upper House from Kerala, said the airlines are invariably together coordinating the fare hike.

She went on to allege that the government is “a partner” in the “organised loot” when it washes its hands off saying airfare fixation is a market dynamic proposition.

Of the USD 120 billion remittances from non-resident Indians that the country got in 2023, Kerala accounted for 19 per cent of it, she said. “We call them the backbone of our remittance economy but actually we are breaking their backs.” She asked the Prime Minister and the union government to intervene and “stop this organised loot”.

She wanted the government to negotiate for a bilateral increase of seats on airlines so that fares can come down.

Sanjay Singh of AAP raised the issue of rising cancer cases in India.

Quoting a WHO report, he said 22 lakh people died of cancer in the last three years. As many as 9 lakh died in 2022, which is more than the population of countries like Bhutan, Luxembourg and the Maldives.

Singh said the recommendations of a parliamentary standing committee that called for free treatment of 25 per cent of cancer patients at private hospitals, and free treatment of children suffering from cancer should be implemented.

Maharaja Sanajaoba Leishemba (BJP) demanded the 500-year-old all-women run market of Ima Keithel in Manipur be declared as a living cultural heritage site while his party colleague Darshana Singh raised concerns over open bore wells in the country.

Muzibulla Khan (BJD) drew attention to incomplete national highway projects in Odisha.

Samik Bhattacharya of BJP raised the issue of fake currency in circulation in the country, saying any counterfeit currency found in the country has often found to have links to Kaliachak in Malda district of West Bengal.

“Of all fake currencies in the country, 20 per cent are coming from West Bengal,” he claimed.

Amid protests from TMC members, he said, “we are facing a silent demographic invasion. Not only that, the entire demographic design of West Bengal border areas has been totally changed.” “Our democracy, our economy, our integrity, our internal security is under threat,” he said. Districts like Malda, Murshidabad and Lodhia in West Bengal are not only home for fake currency but also for fake Aadhaar cards, and fake PAN cards, he said adding the fake currency is coming from Bangladesh.

This, he said, cannot be stopped by one agency. NIA, BSF and West Bengal police will have to work together, he added.