‘Stampedes, long queues, fighting and no social distancing whatsoever’:

‘Stampedes, long queues, fighting and no social distancing whatsoever’:

Passengers recount ‘worst travel experience ever’ at Delhi airport

Travel agents are advising people to hold off trips, as holiday rush and Omicron panic has resulted in a chaotic scenario at the airport

Niharika Lal

09.12.2021

The chaotic scenario and never-ending queues at Delhi airports have become a hot topic on social media recently, with netizens posting both concerned and tongue-incheek tweets, comparing the airport to a ‘train station’.

Mocking the Inception-like queue-within-a-queue-within-a-queue (you get the picture!) saga one has to face at the airport, comic Amit Tandon tweeted recently, “Lounge at Mumbai International Airport has a longer queue than the check in counter (sic)”. To this, someone replied – “can’t be longer than the line at Delhi airport to enter the airport”. At the same time, sharing a picture of the overcrowded Delhi airport, entrepreneur Kiran Mazumdar Shaw tweeted, “...Not A Train Station, This Is Delhi Airport Under Omicron Rules...it’s obvious that the airport testing upon arrival will cause pandemonium n a transmission hot spot - but who’s listening? (sic)”

DOMESTIC AIR TRAFFIC UP BY 0.5% DESPITE OMICRON: STUDY

India’s domestic air traffic went up by 0.5% recently, according to UK aviation data company OAG. In India, domestic airlines offered a total of 3.34 million seats last week, while this week the number was a tad higher at 3.36 million. In comparison, pre-Covid, in the first week of December 2019, domestic airlines offered a total of 3.5 million seats.

AIRPORT WAS CROWDED FOR TWO DAYS DUE TO NEW GUIDELINES, OPERATIONS ARE NOW SMOOTH, SAYS DELHI AIRPORT OFFICIAL

A Delhi airport official says, “While the airport was crowded for the initial two days after the guidelines were issued, operations are now smooth. People are also opting for RTPCR tests for which they can get results within 90 minutes and not miss their flight.” While talking about complaints regarding passengers’ temperatures not being checked, the officials said, “Body temperature is not checked at the airport because there is a mass thermal screening system installed to screen all passengers.” He adds, “We have also made provisions for separate parking for flights coming from high risk countries, so that they do not come in contact with other passengers.” Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEODIAL, said in a statement that apart from installing extra rapid RT-PCR machines and test counters, “We are also working closely with the immigration authorities to facilitate swift movement of passengers. Seating arrangements have been vastly expanded and food counters have been made available in the waiting area.”

A railway station is less crowded than the Delhi airport: Travellers

As per UK aviation data company OAG – domestic air traffic in India is up by 0.5% despite reports of rising Omicron cases. If anything, the newly detected COVID-19 variant has led to people preponing international travel plans, as those abroad scramble to find tickets to return home.

‘THERE WAS OVERCROWDING OUTSIDE THE AIRPORT, AT CHECK-IN, FOOD COUNTERS AND THE WAITING AREA’

A traveller who flew to London this week, described her airport experience as “quite chaotic”. “First, we had to wait in a queue for around 15-20 minutes to get inside. Once I entered the airport, it felt like the pandemic never happened! There was overcrowding at check-in queues, food counters and the waiting area. No one was following any social distancing, whatsoever,” she says.

The passenger adds, “I wouldn’t say it felt like a railway station, because I recently travelled by train and the station was definitely less crowded than the airport!” Another person, whose family flew to India, says they encountered a stampede-like situation at the airport and called it the “worst experience of their lives”.

On Monday, after pictures of long queues, chaos and crowd at the Delhi airport surfaced online, it was reported that aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia directed Delhi airport operator DIAL to implement better crowd management strategies.

‘PEOPLE WERE FIGHTING IN QUEUES TO GET THEIR COVID TEST RESULTS AT DELHI AIRPORT’

As revised travel guidelines were implemented in the wake of the new COVID variant, many flyers had to wait for hours to get their tests done and then wait for the results, which led to more crowding and chaos, say passengers. Aryaman Raj Sokhal, student of Cambridge University, who reached Delhi, last week, shares, “Before boarding my flight from Heathrow airport, I had to book an RT-PCR test on arrival, and had to choose a time slot. I was landing at 1.15am in Delhi, so I chose the 2-3am slot. On landing, I had to go to one desk to get a QR code, and then another for my COVID test. I was lucky to not find any queue at both places. However, after the test one has to wait for a PDF that is mailed to them, which can take up to 4-5 hours. After taking the print of the PDF, one has to get it stamped before they can proceed to immigration. The queue for the print out was long, and people were jumping it and fighting among themselves. It took me five hours to reach the luggage belt and finally leave the airport.”

‘IT WASN’T POSSIBLE TO MAINTAIN SOCIAL DISTANCING, PEOPLE WEREN’T EVEN WEARING MASKS’

Akshat, who works for a film production company and flew to Delhi this week from Mumbai, says, “It was one of my worst travel experiences. Flyers are panicking that we’ll go into lockdown any second, and so are desperate to reach their destination. At the same time, despite Omicron fears, flights are still serving food and operating at 100% occupancy. If you are lucky, then your flight’s air hostess may remind fellow passengers to wear a mask, but more often than not, people are being too careless about rules.”

Vidhur Dixit, who returned from London on December 6, adds, “I was scared after seeing the crowd at the Delhi airport. It just wasn’t possible to maintain social distancing and most people were not even wearing their masks properly.”

— with inputs from Divya Kaushik

MUMBAI, HYDERABAD AIRPORTS OFFER MOST EXPENSIVE RAPID TESTS

Under the new norms, passengers arriving from ‘at-risk’ nations have to undergo an RT-PCR test and wait for their results before they can leave the airport or take a connecting flight. They can choose between the regular and rapid versions of the test. At the Delhi airport, a rapid test costs a passenger ₹3,500, while results come in 60-90 minutes. A regular RT-PCR costs a passenger ₹500 and the results come in around six hours. Following are the prices of rapid tests in different cities:

Mumbai: ₹3,900

Hyderabad: ₹3900

Delhi: ₹3,500

Bengaluru: ₹3,000

Kolkata: ₹2,900

Chennai: ₹2,900

Cochin: ₹2,490

(Source: TOI)

BUDGET TRAVELLERS SHOULD AVOID AIRPORTS TRIPS RIGHT NOW, SAY TRAVEL AGENTS

Travel agents point out that they have been getting a lot of complaints from both, passengers flying out of the country and those flying in. Prachi, a travel agent says, “People are complaining about having to fill multiple forms on the flight and once they land at the airport, despite no one checking those forms. Some even told us that their temperature wasn’t checked at the airport. This includes not just Delhi, but all other major airports in the country. Families are facing more trouble than solo flyers, because test prices for them average at over ₹15,000. Passengers with connecting flights are facing a lot of trouble, too, because if they miss their next flight, who will compensate them?”

A senior staff member at a travel portal says, “We are advising people to hold off leisure travel plans for at least a week or ten days, as the current airport scenario is too chaotic. Budget travellers should avoid travelling at present.” Akash Rastogi, director of a travel company, adds that the current situation is more panic-induced.

‘Every able-bodied man’s moral duty to maintain wife’

‘Every able-bodied man’s moral duty to maintain wife’

New Delhi:  09.12.2021

A Delhi court has dismissed a plea challenging the payment of maintenance to his estranged wife, saying every able-bodied man is bound to maintain his wife and cannot run away from this responsibility by giving excuses.

District Judge Ramesh Kumar said that being the husband, he cannot escape from his moral duty of providing maintenance to his wife.

“The Domestic Violence Act, 2005 is aimed at strengthening the economic independence of a woman,” the court said in the order.

It further said the magistrate court rightly observed that the aspect of financial deprivation of women is included in the category of economic abuse. “It is pertinent to mention that an aggrieved woman needs economic support in view of the domestic violence perpetrated upon her by a person, who is in domestic relation with her.”

A magistrate court had earlier directed the man to pay an interim maintenance of Rs 6,500 per month to his wife. The man had challenged the order before the sessions court. TNN

Flyer from UK flees quarantine, taken back by Delhi policemen

Flyer from UK flees quarantine, taken back by Delhi policemen

Ipsita.Pati@timesgroup.com

Gurgaon:  09.12.2021

A passenger from the UK tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival at Indira Gandhi International Airport on Monday, left two isolation centres in Delhi to get himself admitted to Gurgaon’s Medanta hospital in the early hours of Tuesday and was finally tracked down by Delhi Police and taken back to an isolation facility in the capital.

It is not yet clear whether the patient is infected with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, but district administration officials said that they could not afford to take any risk.

The 30-year-old man is a resident of DLF-1. Upon his return from the UK, his swab sample was positive, following which he was taken to Lok Nayak Hospital and advised institutional isolation. The patient insisted that he would bear the cost of treatment on his own and was taken in an ambulance to a private hospital in Saket. However, within hours, the man left that facility too and came to Medanta with the help of his relatives.

“The patient informed us that he had tested positive for Covid, showed the documents and got admitted to the hospital. Later, Delhi Police took him back to the isolation centre in the capital,” said Dr Sushila Kataria, an intensive care expert at Medanta.

The patient is currently admitted to Max Saket, which has been designated an isolation centre.

Asked why the patient was taken back to Delhi, she said, “There are eight isolation centres where international travellers who test positive for Covid are being isolated till their genome sequencing reveals the variant they are infected with. None of the Gurgaon hospitals is in the list. Therefore, the patient had to be taken to one of those centres.”

As per the Union health ministry’s directives, officials are supposed to mandatorily take swab samples of every flyer and isolate them in a separate unit of an institutional facility if they are found positive. Their contacts also need to be traced immediately, according to the guidelines.

75 years ago, a queen jumped to her death from Qutub Minar

TOI+ EXCLUSIVE

75 years ago, a queen jumped to her death from Qutub Minar

Rani Tara Devi Of Kapurthala Was A Czech Beauty Who Had Been A Rising Star At Vienna’s Burgtheater Before She Met Maharaja Jagatjit Singh And Accompanied Him To India. She Jumped Off The Qutub On December 9, 1946

Abhilash.Gaur@timesgroup.com

09.12.2021

By December 1946, the tall woman with wide-set eyes was a familiar sight at New Delhi’s Maidens Hotel. She had been staying there for about a month. Every day, she took her dogs out walking. But on the morning of the second Monday – December 9 – she came out of her suite alone, hailed a taxi and sped towards the Qutub Minar.

The 13th-century tower lay outside the capital, about 20km away. On arriving at the Minar, the woman left her handbag with the driver and started up the stairs. The Minar is taller than a 20-storey apartment building and not an easy climb even for someone in fine fettle. Had the driver glanced up, he couldn’t have read the look on her face when she appeared at the top. But he would have frozen in shock as she jumped to death.

A woman so beautiful that she had wowed Vienna’s elite on her first major stage appearance 11 years earlier, now lay smashed beyond recognition. Who was she? The contents of her handbag revealed she was Rani Tara Devi, 33-year-old estranged wife of Kapurthala’s ageing Maharaja, Jagatjit Singh.

After a post-mortem next morning, Tara Devi was buried at the Nicholson Cemetery near Kashmere Gate in Delhi, and forgotten.

A charmer on stage

But Tara Devi wasn’t her real name. A Kapurthala state declaration submitted to the British in 1940 mentions her name as ‘Engenie’ Marie Grosupova, which might have been a typist’s mistake. Eugenie is the more likely name.

The Rani was a Czech national, born on January 22, 1914. Dr Leon Pistol, who had been her guardian in Vienna from the age of 4 to 20 years, told the Canadian newspaper Photo Journal that she was the daughter of “a very wealthy member of the Hungarian nobility”. Before she accompanied the Maharaja to India, shortly before WW-II started, she had been a promising new dancer on Vienna’s most famous stage, the Burgtheater.

In 1935, Eugenie had landed a meaty role as Anitra in Henrik Ibsen’s drama Peer Gynt. The press admired her for her beauty, femininity and dancing. Austrian papers such as Die Stunde mentioned her as Nina Grosup-Karatsonyi. After her suicide, papers in America, Europe and Australia also used the name Nina Grosup, so did Pistol. So, Nina is what we’ll call her for the rest of this story.

A royal whim

After making a splash on the stage in 1935, why did Nina disappear from it? In April 1947, four months after her suicide, Pistol told Photo Journal that the Maharaja had been present at the Burgtheater during one of her performances. “Immediately after the performance, Nina’s mother called me to tell me that the Maharaja wanted to bring them all back (to India) with him,” the article written in French says.

Another article published in the Sydney edition of The World’s News on August 23, 1947, also says, “On the opening night she received an ovation from the crowd, and a huge bouquet of roses from the Maharaja of Kapurthala, who had been admiring the dancer from his box.”

Pistol said he opposed the Maharaja’s offer because Nina had signed a three-year contract with the Burgtheater, but “the suitor-royal simply shrugged his shoulders and offered to buy out the contract in question for $20,000.”

Soon after this, Nina, her then 46-year-old mother Marie Grosupova, and a 64-year-old maid/governess named Antonia Kaura, “followed the Maharaja to Paris, London, and finally, to India”.

It’s difficult to verify Pistol’s claims in detail but the International Herald Tribune of June 28, 1938, describes a luncheon hosted by the Maharaja at the George V hotel in Paris at which ‘Mme Grosup’ (Marie), ‘Mlle Grosup’ (Nina) and ‘Dr Pistol’ were among the guests. Clearly, Pistol’s story had a kernel of truth.

By the time WW-II started in 1939, the Grosups were installed at Jagatjit Palace in Kapurthala, although Nina and the Maharaja weren’t married until then.

Unhappy marriage

The Maharaja was well-known in Europe and America and his engagements were regularly covered, so strangely his marriage to Nina didn’t draw the press’s attention, maybe because it was absorbed by the war. But it is a fact that Nina and he were married, and she was given the Indian name Tara Devi, because the question of “the grant of a British passport to Rani Tara Devi (formally Miss Grosup, a Czechoslovak citizen), wife of His Highness the Maharaja of Kapurthala” did arise in 1942.

It wasn’t a happy marriage. Reports after Nina’s suicide said they had separated in 1945 and she had been living alone. Pistol said she had intended to visit America in December 1946 to settle there. The World’s News article said she had asked Pistol to buy her a house near New York City.

Was it suicide?

From the first, Pistol said he suspected foul play in Nina’s death. He alleged that a month before she died, she had written to him saying, “Every day when I go out with my dogs somebody is asking me questions and follows me. I don’t know what he wants.

He pursued the case for some years. The National Archives of India has a 1948 record of an “Enquiry by Mr Leon Pistol, guardian of late Rani Tara Devi of Kapurthala, regarding her death in 1946.” In 1952, Pistol also sent a request to the PM “for assistance and advice regarding investigation into the mysterious death in 1946 of Eugenie Grosup, popularly known as Rani Tara Devi of Kapurthala.” But by then, the Maharaja had died and the Rani, whom few knew while she lived in India, had been completely forgotten.

Tragedy in Nilgiris leaves political leadership in shock

Tragedy in Nilgiris leaves political leadership in shock

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:  09.12.2021

Top leaders of the country, including President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, expressed anguish over the sudden demise of CDS Gen Bipin Rawat, his wife and 11 other defence personnel in the helicopter crash on Wednesday.

“I am shocked and anguished,” the President tweeted. “The nation has lost one of its bravest sons. His four decades of selfless service to the motherland was marked by exceptional gallantry and heroism. My condolences to his family,” Kovind added. “It’s deeply painful for me to learn of the loss of lives in the chopper crash. I join the fellow citizens in paying tributes to each of those who died while performing their duty. My heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families.”

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said that Rawat was known for his remarkable leadership and strategic vision and added great strength to the defence capabilities and made a stellar contribution to strengthening the national security. “His outstanding service to our nation will always be remembered,” Naidu added.

Expressing anguish over the deaths in the crash, PM Modi said, “They served India with utmost diligence. My thoughts are with the bereaved families.”

Recalling Gen Rawat as an outstanding soldier and a true patriot, Modi said, “He greatly contributed to modernising our armed forces and security apparatus. His insights and perspectives on strategic matters were exceptional. His passing away has saddened me deeply.”

He further said that as India’s first CDS, Gen Rawat worked on diverse aspects, including defence reforms. “He brought with him a rich experience of serving in the Army. India will never forget his exceptional service.”

Defence minister Rajnath Singh said the untimely death of Gen Rawat was an irreparable loss to the armed forces and the country. “Gen Rawat served the country with exceptional courage and diligence,” he said.

“Praying for the speedy recovery of Group Capt Varun Singh, who is currently under treatment at the Military Hospital, Wellington,” Singh added.

Home minister Amit Shah said that it was a sad day for the nation. “His exemplary contributions and commitment cannot be put into words. I am deeply pained,” he said.

PM Modi tweeted this picture of CDS Rawat on Wednesday

Spike in Raj as 40 test +ve; Omicron cases at 9

Spike in Raj as 40 test +ve; Omicron cases at 9

Intishab.Ali@timesgroup.com

Jaipur:  09.12.2021

In a clear spike in Covid-19 cases, Rajasthan on Wednesday reported 40 coronavirus positive patients, 25 of whom are from Jaipur only. The state so far has nine confirmed cases of Omicron, all in the city. Eight relatives of a person from the city’s Vaishali Nagar, who had arrived from Germany on November 27 and tested positive two days ago, were found infected on Wednesday.

Besides, three more people from a family of 14 living in the city’s Adarsh Nagar locality were found positive on Wednesday. This family has already reported five confirmed cases of Omicron. Four relatives of the Adarsh Nagar family, who had arrived in the city from South Africa on November 25, had first tested positive for Omicron. Among these 11 new cases, five are children below 18 years — three from the Vaishali Nagar family and two from the Adarsh Nagar family. Suspecting the 11 cases reported from Vaishali Nagar and Adarsh Nagar to be Omicron infection, the health department has decided to send their samples for genome sequencing and isolate them at the dedicated Covid-19 RUHS Hospital.“All those who come in contact with Omicron-positive cases and test positive for Covid-19 are termed ‘suspected cases of Omicron’. Also, those who are coming in from ‘at risk’ countries and testing positive, and their contacts who test positive, too are suspected cases of the new variant,” said Dr Ajit Singh, superintendent, RUHS Hospital.

4 foreign returnees test +ve in Odisha

Four foreign returnees from “at-risk” countries have tested positive for coronavirus, Odisha health authorities confirmed on Wednesday, reports Riyan Ramanath. The samples of those infected have been sent to Insascog laboratory at the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) to ascertain whether they are carrying the Omicron variant of the virus. “They have mild symptoms,” Niranjan Mishra, director of public health, said.

Saudi exempts Indian pilgrims from quarantine

Saudi exempts Indian pilgrims from quarantine

Mumbai:  09.12.2021

With Saudi Arabia exempting Umrah pilgrims from India from the requirement of five-day quarantine on reaching there, pilgrims and tour operators are ecstatic, reports Mohammed Wajihuddin.

While Haj is performed annually, Umrah or minor pilgrimage can be performed throughout the year. Though Saudi permitted visits of Umrah pilgrims to Haram Sharief in Mecca with some restrictions weeks ago, the 15-day quarantine requirement in a third country — UAE, Russia and Kazakhstan among others — or the five-day quarantine in Saudi Arabia discouraged them. “It is a relief to both the tour operators and pilgrims. We would get a number of enquiries daily about Umrah visas, but were helpless because of the quarantine requirement. Now, the number of Indian pilgrims Umrah will rise,” said Yusuf Ahmed Khereda of Al Khalid Tours and Travels.“I am so excited that I have got a Umrah visa and will soon travel to Saudi Arabia to pray at the holy mosques in Mecca and Medina and be at the mausoleum of the holy Prophet,” said Imtiyaz Vilatra, country head of corporate house Posterscope OOH.