Airlines lift ban on TDP legislator

Three major airlines, including IndiGo and Air India, have lifted the flying ban on TDP MP J C Diwakar Reddy after the warring parties reached a compromise. IndiGo had accused Reddy of “aggressive and abusive” behaviour against its staff on June 15. It agreed to lift the ban and Reddy decided to withdraw the court case against several domestic airlines forbidding him from flying on their aircraft.

Mall refuses entry to children of farmers who committed suicide

A prominent south Delhi mall on Thursday  “refused” entry to a group of children from Maharashtra, many of whose parents have committed suicide due to farm distress, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav said.

Yadav said a manager with DLF Place, Saket, told them that the children would require “special permission” to enter its premises. The mall authorities rejected the charge. An executive of the mall has claimed that  there was some “miscommunication” when the children reached the mall around 4 pm, which was “resolved and they were even taken around the mall and provided refreshments”. “The kids were wearing kurta pyjamas and Nehru caps. Around 4 pm, the guard disallowed the children and called the junior manager. The junior manager, in turn, refused entry to them, saying such kids need special permission to enter the mall,” Yadav told a former colleague of Arvind Kejriwal told media in Delhi.

The children, numbering around 40, stay at an ashram in Maharashtra’s Nashik district, which houses children whose parents have committed suicide owing to farm crisis. They are in Delhi to participate in a farmers’ protest.

Yadav, a part of the protest, said his organisation, Swaraj Abhiyan, wanted these children to unwind at a mall, which they may not have seen until now. “Our volunteer protested and threatened to call the media. It was only after that the senior manager thought this would snowball into a controversy and allowed entry to them,” he said.