Thiruvanathapuram: Reacting to Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan's statement that the state government had demanded lesser number of flights as part of the Vande Bharat mission, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday said Kerala has neither denied permission nor put any pre-conditions to flights coming to the state.
Muraleedharan reportedly stated that the state government had expressed its inability to make arrangements for receiving more passengers.
"I do not know what his aim was. All are welcome. We have given permission for all flights," Pinarayi said when asked about the minister's alleged remark.
The state has given permission to all flights asked by the external affairs ministry, he said.
As part of the second phase of the Vande Bharat mission, the ministry had stated that 12 flights would be operated on a single day in June and the state government had given its nod for the same, Pinarayi said.
Under this arrangement, 360 flights have to come to the state in June.
"But from June 3-10, only 36 flights have been scheduled. This means that the permission granted for 324 flights in June have are to be scheduled," he said.
"Central government could not operate flights as they had wanted, this is what we need to understand from this. We cannot find fault with this as there would be difficulties in operating a large number of flights simultaneously to bring people from various countries," he said.
Besides the remaining 324 flights, Kerala was prepared to allow more flights to the state and government had also asked the centre to inform how many more flights are likely to be scheduled to the state as part of the Vande Bharat mission, Pinarayi said.
The state has also granted permission for 40 chartered flights, but till June 2, only 14 flights have come, Pinarayi said, adding it was prepared to permit more chartered flights to the state.
From May 7 expatriates started returning to the state and till June 2, 140 flights have brought in 24,333 people.
In addition, through three ships, 1,488 people have come from foreign countries and totally 25,881 have come to the state from abroad.
(With inputs from PTI)