Pathankot, April 9
Landing of civil flight of Mr Vinod Khanna, Minister of State for External Affairs, at the Air Force base here and unscheduled inspection of the adjoining Civil Airport which is near completion today landed him in a controversy.

Mr Khanna, who was received by certain officials of the Civil Aviation authority and a number of BJP workers and leaders after his landing denied that he had violated any code of conduct on the pretext that it was a chartered flight on the Air Force station. Yet the incident has created lot of political dust in the sub division. Mr Harjit Singh, Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer who rushed to Pathankot to have first hand information following certain complaints said that though preliminary reports did not find any violation of the code yet he had directed Mr Puneet Goel, SDM, to submit the report within 48 hours. He said Mr Goel would ask the airport authorities personally to see whether there was any violation of the code or not.

The foundation stone of Rs 40-crore civil airport was laid amid a lot of fanfare on June 29, 2001 by Mr Sharad Yadav, the then Civil Aviation Minister at the time of laying of the foundation stone. Mr Yadav had stated that Pathankot’s civil airport would be suitable for operation of B-737 type aircraft. Being gateway to Jammu and Kashmir and picturesque valleys of Kangra and Chamba in Himachal Pradesh and defence requirements, this would also fulfil the requirements of Defence after its completion. Mr Khanna asked the civil airport authorities as to why it was not completed as per deadline, which was fixed as April 2004. Then he directed them to complete approach roads to the runway and other networks at the earliest so that its formal inauguration could be done after the Lok Sabha elections.

The district election officer said he had learnt that Mr Khanna’s chartered plane had landed at the Air Force’s base after getting due permission by the Defence authorities, however, it is yet to be confirmed whether any official of the Civil Aviation had received him today .

The district Congress is seeking report of the development before taking up the matter with Chief Election Commissioner. The Congress leadership alleged that Mr Khanna tried to take political mileage by giving an impression that he had brought an inaugural flight here. Mr Khanna , while talking to The Tribune clarified that he was aware of the model code and hence he could not think of violating it. He said he had to land here as he wanted to address rallies in his constituency . Among the BJP leaders who were present on the occasion included Mr Ashok Prashar, district president, Mr Ashok Kumar Gupta, Mr Jatinder Dev Sharma and Mr Raj Kumar Gupta.