Chaos at Goa airport as Alemao slaps employee

PANAJI, May 29: The alleged assault of an airport employee by South Goa MP Churchil Alemao and the anger the incident provoked produced a f...

PANAJI, May 29: The alleged assault of an airport employee by South Goa MP Churchil Alemao and the anger the incident provoked produced a flash strike of airport employees at Dabolin on Tuesday evening resulting in the delayed departure of three flights by two hours.

The matters were ultimately resolved and the delayed flights left after a good deal of commotion. However Churchil himself who was to board the flight to Delhi preferred to cancel the trip reportedly to assuage the ruffled feelings of the agitated employees who were in no mood to have him on the flight after he refused to yield to their demand for apology.

There are varying versions of the airport incident. According to one report Alemao slapped a house-keeper Suresh Babu for delay in opening the VIP room for him. When the airport director Raghunathan approached him to question why the employee was assaulted, the MP also allegedly assaulted and abused him.

Alemao, however, denied the charges but demanded suspension of Raghunathan for behaving rudely with him.

Former Minister of State and Alemao’s rival in the last elections, Eduardo Faleiro who was also on the airport to board the flight to Delhi tried to interfere and pacify the agitated airport staff. Even if the assault incident was there as claimed in some reports surprisingly there has been no police complaint. Airport authorities when contacted confirmed the incident but declined to give more deals.

During the two-hour turmoil at the airport, agitated staff cutoff water and power supply leading to disruption of several routine operations.