MADURAI : Members of the Tamil Nadu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, led by its president N Jegatheesan and executive committee member Hari Thiagarajan, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and appealed to him regarding the upgradation of various facilities at the Madurai airport.
In a petition, they urged the Prime Minister to declare Madurai airport as operational 24*7, apart from including the airport as a ‘point of call’ under the Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) with other countries.
“Non-inclusion of Madurai airport under BASA has been restricting operations of foreign airlines, particularly those based in Malaysia, Singapore, UAE and Kuwait, among others,” the petitioners stated.
The members further said that Coimbatore, Vijayawada, Tirupati and Shirdi airports were already declared as international airports by the union government, while the Madurai airport, which has a higher number of international passengers, is still a customs airport.
“There should be no delay in changing Madurai airport’s status to an international airport as it is a catalyst for economic, trade and industrial growth in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu. Madurai is also a heritage and medical tourism destination. Works to expand the airport runways should also be expedited, along with the construction of the underpass on national highway 45B,” the petitioners said.
PM urged to fix shortcomings in GST Act
Tamil Nadu Foodgrains Merchants Association president SVSS Velshankar, Honorary Secretary S Sai Subramaniam and Honorary Advisor SP Jayaprakasam petitioned the prime minister, demanding the union government to restructure the Goods and Services Tax Act. They stated that the union government had integrated 11 laws concerning food manufacturing and sales and introduced a single law in 2011. The petitioners urged the prime minister to meet with the officials concerned and remove the shortcomings of the Act.
They also stated that prices of ‘appalams’, a food item consumed by various sections of people, had increased owing to a rise in urad dal’s prices, and sought the prime minister’s intervention to stabilise the price of urad dal under the Bharat Dal scheme.