National carrier Air India on Saturday apologised to passengers of a delayed flight — that was to operate from New Delhi to Chicago — after passengers were kept waiting inside the stationary aircraft at the New Delhi IGI airport for about eight hours. It was a horrible start to the new year for these passengers. The flight, which was to leave at 1.30 am with 323 passengers on Saturday, will now leave at 1.30 am on Sunday, after a delay of 24 hours. The flight was initially delayed by about two hours following a software glitch in the check-in system of Air India. The delay occurred when 200 passengers on connecting flights from Hyderabad, Mumbai and Ahmedabad were to check-in.
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Telecom firms pay penalty
AGE CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi
Jan. 1: The new telecom operators, who were issued licences in 2008, have paid a fine of `73.73 crore for failing to meet the roll out obligation, said telecom minister Kapil Sibal on Saturday.
“Now we have to decide what to do,” said Mr Sibal. The government is still sending out notices and government is expecting more money to come in. These telecom operators are given 15 days to respond to these notices. Telecom secretary R. Chandrashekhar said that there has been no case where operators have not paid fine after getting the notices.
The operators which have paid the fine are Etisalat DB, Loop Telecom, Uninor, Sistema-Shyam and Aircel. The old telecom players have yet to pay their share of penalty. The telecom ministry in November had decided to impose penalties for 119 licences, majority of which are with new players for failing to meet the roll out obligation. The firms which are being asked to pay penalties also include some case where spectrum was given in 2006 and 2007.