Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on Saturday gave the go-ahead to officials to start building a civil enclave at an IAF airport in the Purnea. He spent the day inspecting the ongoing civil enclave construction at Chunapur Air Force Station with senior officials from the concerned departments. Following the inspection, the CM presided over a review meeting as well.
Purnea District Magistrate Kundan Kumar briefed the chief minister on the continuing work being done on approach roads and the runway development at Chunapur airport, as per a statement released by the Chief Minister’s Office. “The CM asked officials to expedite the ongoing work and complete the project at the earliest,” it said.
The state government has already allotted land for the runway and other works that are being done in association with the Union Civil Aviation Ministry. “The CM said when the civil enclave at Purnea airport becomes operational, people will need not to go to Bagdogra to take a flight to reach other places in the country”, the statement said.
Senior representatives from the Ministry of Defence and the Airport Authority of India, along with Air Vice Marshal SK Mathur, were present at the CM’s meeting held in Purnea on Saturday.
Speaking about the chief minister’s visit to the Chunapur air force base on Saturday, Rajesh Ranjan, also known as Pappu Yadav, MP for Purnea in the Lok Sabha, attacked state government representatives and Kumar for not extending an invitation to him. “I am the Lok Sabha MP from Purnea and the people of Purnea elected me. However, I was not invited by senior officials of the state government for today’s function. It’s an insult to the people of Purnea. I have been raising the issues related to the construction of the airport for the last several years,” he said.
The MP also said he recently raised the issue in Parliament. “I recently met Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu. But I was not invited to today’s function of the CM,” he added.
(with inputs from PTI)