The students all aged between 19 to 26 years including both boys and girls , said when they were about to obtain boarding passes at the counter, they were shocked to be told that their seats “ were no more”.
All the students reported that they had received SMS flight time delay alert, which meant confirmation of their seats upto the time the plane flew in from Dibrugarh.
Reliable sources informed Nagaland Post that no plausible explanation was given to the victimized students nor any concrete decision about their next flight since there is no flight to Dimapur on June 25.
The sources said despite all efforts to urge the airlines to make provide confirmation and also demanding why they have been offloaded, the vague explanation they got was that their seats were sold to others somewhere by someone.
As the news of the incident spread at the airport Tuesday, parents and public alike demanded that strong action and punishment be initiated against person/authority responsible for humiliation.
The demand seemed justified since the victimized and humiliated students have lost their chances of appearing for interviews after their successes in the recent Secondary and Degree exams.
While the list of nine students could be obtained, six others had left the airport with deep anger at the humiliation and so their PNR could not be ascertained.
Sources said some of the students like Ajano Ngullie and Thungchano, had travelled all the way from Wokha and were rushing to appear the MA (Pol Science) interview on June 25 at Madras University in Chennai.
Most of the students were either studying or seeking admission in Delhi. Among the passengers was a Naga lady serving at the United Nations and returning back after a short break.
Flight AI 705 arrives at Dimapur from Kolkata five times a week but re-routed via Dibrugarh which causes delay and inconvenience such as today since The flight was scheduled to land at 1 pm and depart at 1:30 pm but was delayed today for four hours. The delay meant that many passengers have missed the connecting flights from Kolkata .
Dimapur airport has been at the mercy of unseen powers that be and passengers and those going for educational or medical appointments have been bearing the brunt for so many years.
Volume of passengers has been increasing but for Dimapur, the only air link of Nagaland with the other parts of the country, the flights have been reduced to five times a week from its previous daily flights.
Despite several requests from the state including the Governors, Chief Ministers of Nagaland, the Civil Aviation ministry appears bent on showing a step motherly treatment to the state.