Airlines operating flights to northeast have been asked to transport life saving drugs on a priority basis to Manipur, where an 80-day-old highway blockade has created havoc.
New Delhi: The aviation regulator has asked all airlines to transport life saving drugs on a priority basis to the northeastern state of Manipur, where an 80-day-old highway blockade has created havoc.
“Information has been received from Home Secretary, Manipur that in view of 80-days-long blockade in Manipur, there is extremely low supply of life saving drugs,” Lalit Gupta, joint director general at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) wrote to Air India, Jet Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet Vistara, GoAir and AirAsia India CEOs on Friday.
All these airlines operate flights to the northeast.
“In view of the above, all are requested to take priority bookings of all cold chain items bound for Imphal. These include medicines like insulin, vaccines, serum, hormones, etc. While transporting these medicines, provisions of mandatory public health rules may be taken into consideration,” Gupta said.
Assembly elections are scheduled to take place in Manipur on 4 and 8 March and around 20,000 central security forces have been sent to the northeastern state to reinforce security in the wake of violence following the economic blockade imposed by the Union Naga Council (UNC) on the National Highways since 1 November.
The UNC has imposed the economic blockade on NH-2 (Imphal-Dimapur) and NH-37 (Imphal-Jiribam) that serve as lifelines for landlocked Manipur.
In a stern message, the Centre told the Manipur government last month that it cannot escape responsibility for the “humanitarian crisis” arising out of the economic blockade and must work to end it.
Source: Livemint
