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With panic gone, no rush on Indian flights >From Indo-Asian News Service New Delhi, Mar 26 (IANS) With the initial panic subsiding, flights by Indian carriers from Kuwait are operating with empty seats. "There is no exodus. On the contrary we have empty seats on our flights," civil aviation secretary K. Roy Paul told reporters Wednesday. Paul, who is also chairman of Air-India, had visited Kuwait over the last weekend to study flight requirements following criticism that Indian carriers were unable to cope with the rush of Indians wanting to return home in the wake of the Iraq war. "No one has come back because of war," Paul asserted, adding that the rush of people witnessed last week was due to the closure of some projects because of the war and schools declaring spring holidays ahead of schedule. He said a person, who told an Indian television channel in Mumbai on return from Kuwait that he had to run away leaving all his belongings behind, was found to be unemployed for nearly a year and whose visa had expired. He however said there was nearly a 50 percent drop in passengers travelling to Kuwait from India since the war started last week. Roy believes the 370,000 Indians in Kuwait would not have to be evacuated, but added that the government had drawn up contingency plans to meet different possible scenarios. "But I would not like to talk about it and create unnecessary panic," the secretary said. -Indo-Asian News Service _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.goanet.org/mailman/listinfo/goanet
