Srinagar, April 20: National Conference Tuesday raised the issue of cancelling of the lone international flight to Dubai from Srinagar International Airport in the Parliament and called for increasing Hajj quota for Jammu and Kashmir. 
 The NC member parliament Mehboob Beg while raising the issue during grants of External Affairs Ministry in the Lok Sabha said there was no purpose of renaming Srinagar Airport as International Airport when the lone flight to Dubai was cancelled. 
 In a statement, Beg said he told the Ministry that Kashmiris were expecting things would be different and more flights would start to other countries from Srinagar. “But instead of increasing the number of flights, the lone flight to Dubai has been suspended,” Beg said. He said the flight to Dubai should be restarted at the earliest.
 The flight to Dubai, he said, had generated hopes among Kashmiris particularly people dealing with tourism trade were overjoyed about it. “The direct link to Dubai which is hub of tourism and trade would have helped us a lot to attract tourists to the State,” Beg said.
 Incidentally, the first international flight was flagged off from Srinagar by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi in February last year. It had brought Jammu and Kashmir on the global air map.
 Initially, only one flight operated every Saturday, and introduction of more flights was made dependent on the response of the people.
 Beg also asked for increase in JK’s Hajj quota. “Every year we have to plead the Central Hajj Committee to increase the quota. The quota for Kashmir should be increased to substantial level,” Beg said.
 Beg said he raised the issue of travel through Srinagar and Muzaffarabad road and asked the Ministry to make it easy and less complicated. “I informed the Ministry that the present procedure is complex and huge number of people have given up the idea of travelling to other Kashmir to meet their relatives due to difficulties in attaining the travel documents,” Beg added.

Lastupdate on : Tue, 20 Apr 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00:00 IST