CM Narayanasamy resigns as Congress govt in Puducherry falls

News Network

February 22, 2021

V Narayanasamy resigned as Chief Minister of Puducherry on Monday after he failed to prove his government's majority on the floor of the Assembly.

Speaker of the Puducherry Assembly, V P Suvakolundhu, announced that the motion of confidence moved by Narayanasamy stands defeated after the chief minister and members of the ruling party staged a walkout.

Minutes later, Narayanasamy met Lt Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and submitted his resignation. In the morning, Narayanasamy moved the motion and made a long speech during which he accused the BJP and N R Congress of toppling his government.

Narayanasamy said the Congress staged a walkout after the Speaker refused to accept their argument that nominated MLAs do not have voting rights. He also said the BJP toppling an elected government is nothing but "political prostitution."

The L-G had last week directed Narayanasamy to prove his majority after his government plunged into a minority. The issues for the chief minister compounded on Sunday when two more legislators from Congress and DMK resigned. With this, the strength of the ruling combine came down to 12, including the Speaker. The Opposition claims support of 14 MLAs, including 3 nominated legislators who are BJP members.

It is unclear for now whether the L-G will recommend President's rule or allow N Rangasamy, the Opposition Leader, to form a new government.

The development comes just months ahead of the elections as the tenure of the current government is scheduled to end on June 6.

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Chaos continues as IndiGo cancels more flights including 73 from Bengaluru airport

News Network

December 4,2025

Domestic carrier IndiGo has cancelled over 180 flights from three major airports — Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru — on Thursday, December 4, as the airline struggles to secure the required crew to operate its flights in the wake of new flight-duty and rest-period norms for pilots.

While the number of cancellations at Mumbai airport stands at 86 (41 arrivals and 45 departures) for the day, at Bengaluru, 73 flights have been cancelled, including 41 arrivals, according to a PTI report that quoted sources.

"IndiGo cancelled over 180 flights on Thursday at three airports-Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru," the source told the news agency.

Besides, it had cancelled as many as 33 flights at Delhi airport for Thursday, the source said, adding, "The number of cancellations is expected to be higher by the end of the day."

The Gurugram-based airline's On-Time Performance (OTP) nosedived to 19.7 per cent at six key airports — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad — on December 3, as it struggled to get the required crew to operate its services, down from almost half of December 2, when it was 35 per cent.

"IndiGo has been facing acute crew shortage since the implementation of the second phase of the FDTL (Flight Duty Time Limitations) norms, leading to cancellations and huge delays in its operations across the airports," a source had told PTI on Wednesday.

Chaos continued at several major airports for the third day on Thursday because of the cancellations.

A spokesperson for the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru said that 73 IndiGo flights had been cancelled on Thursday.

At least 150 flights were cancelled and dozens of others delayed on Wednesday, airport sources said, leaving thousands of travellers stranded, according to news agency Reuters.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has said it is investigating IndiGo flight disruptions and has asked the airline to submit the reasons for the current situation, as well as its plans to reduce flight cancellations and delays.

It may be mentioned here that the pilots' body, Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), has alleged that IndiGo, despite getting a two-year preparatory window before the full implementation of new flight duty and rest period norms for cockpit crew, "inexplicably" adopted a "hiring freeze".

The FIP said it has urged the safety regulator, the DGCA, not to approve airlines' seasonal flight schedules unless they have adequate staff to operate their services "safely and reliably" in accordance with the New Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) norms.

In a letter to the DGCA late on Wednesday, the FIP urged the DGCA to consider re-evaluating and reallocating slots to other airlines, which have the capacity to operate them without disruption during the peak holiday and fog season if IndiGo continues to "fail in delivering on its commitments to passengers due to its own avoidable staffing shortages."

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