STATE TIMES NEWS
LEH: Immediately after STATETIMES reporting about authorised entry fee being charged at Leh Airport by Ladakh Taxi Operators Cooperative Limited, Airport Authority of India in Leh issued a letter to the cooperative stating that it was unauthorised to such entry fee as the contract agreement was only for parking fee.
Director Airport Authority, Leh, Sonam Norboo has written to the cooperatives asking them to immediately stop it and accordingly this has now been stopped which has received appreciations from many people of Ladakh.
Social activist Sonam Wangchuk, who earlier this month staged a protest at the airport refusing to pay the unlawful charge of entry fee of Rs 50 from private cars, has thanked authorities for the action and suggested the party collecting fee to either return money to the people or donate it to a charity organisation.
“I am now glad to see that airport authority of Leh has issued a letter saying this must be stopped,” Wangchuk wrote on Facebook and requested the party collecting this inappropriate fee to kindly return all money collected in this way to those who demand on the production of their receipts as proof and if no one comes to collect their money back the authorities, he suggested that money collected mistakenly should be donated to charity like the Baal Ashram.
A letter addressed to the President Ladakh Taxi Operators Cooperative Ltd by the Director Airport Authority Leh, Sonam Norboo, stated that any entry was not allowed.
“You are requested to abide by the agreement of the parking contract in which it is mentioned that for five minutes there should not be any charges and also requested to change your slips as charges are meant for parking only and not for entry into the airport,” the letter reads.
It would be interesting to see whether the airport authority allows the Cooperative to participate in future tenders floated to allot the contract of parking at the airport because the party to which contract was awarded has definitely violated terms and conditions by unnecessarily charging all private vehicles entering the airport.
