Port Blair, July 15: Mr. Kuldeep Rai Sharma, President, Pradesh Congress Committee in a letter addressed to Mr. P. Chidambaram, the Union Minister of Home Affairs, New Delhi has requested him to use his good office to convince the concerned Civil Aviation Ministry to grant subsidy to stretcher patient of these Islands when they are referred to Mainland hospital for treatment.
The exiting practice is that serious patients of these islands when referred to Mainland Hospital for treatment in stretcher are charged a fare equal to nine tickets of Flight which comes to about Rs one lakh.
“The common People particularly poor and weaker sections of the society of these Islands are not able to afford the so high cost for carrying the stretcher patient by Flight. Therefore the fare for stretcher patient in Air Flight is to be subsidized to the fare of one seat instead of nine seats,” Mr. Sharma said in his letter to the Home Minister.
