The Haryana Government on Thursday protested against Punjab Government’s advertisement naming Chandigarh International Airport as Mohali International Airport.
Expressing his anguish over the “misleading’ advertisements, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal has written to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal urging him to look into the matter and take remedial action in this regard.
Haryana CM wrote, “I am deeply anguished by the advertisements that appeared in various newspapers terming the Chandigarh International Airport as Mohali International Airport.”
“This is factually incorrect,” he said.
“The fact is that the final nomenclature of this airport has not yet been decided by the Government of India. This airport is managed by Chandigarh International Airport limited (CHIAl ) where the Airport Authority of India is having 51 percent equity partnership and the State Governments of Haryana and Punjab are having equity at 24.5 percent each in the said company,” the letter stated.
“Being the equal partner in the Chandigarh International Airport limited, we strongly object to the misleading advertisement campaign carried out by the State Government of Punjab. I request you to kindly look into the matter and take remedial action in this regard,” stated the Haryana CM in his letter.
Notably, the tussle had been on between Punjab and Haryana Governments since past several years over the issue of naming of Chandigarh airport.
The Assemblies of Punjab and Haryana had, in 2009 and 2010, respectively, passed resolutions for naming the airport after martyr Bhagat Singh. However, the BJP Government headed by Manohar lal Khattar, which came to power in October 2014, wrote to the Civil Aviation Ministry to name the airport after Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Mangal Sein who had also been Deputy Chief Minister of Haryana for about two years from 1977.
Following this, Punjab Chief Minister had written to Prime Minster Narendra Modi in December 2015, terming the move as “distasteful”.
Meanwhile, the Haryana Assembly had earlier this year unanimously passed another resolution to name the Chandigarh International Airport as Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport, Chandigarh.