Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has raised serious concerns regarding Air India’s service after he was assigned a broken seat during his flight from Bhopal to Delhi. Chouhan, who was on his way to Delhi to attend several important events, including the inauguration of the Kisan Mela in Pusa and a meeting on the Natural Farming Mission in Kurukshetra, voiced his dissatisfaction on social media, questioning the airline’s ethical practices.
Chouhan, the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, was traveling on Air India flight number AI436 on Saturday when he encountered an issue with his assigned seat, number 8C. Upon boarding, he discovered that the seat was broken and sunken, making it uncomfortable to sit on for the duration of the flight. Despite informing the airline staff about the issue, Chouhan was told that the management had already been made aware of the defective seat and had advised that it should not be sold.
The minister expressed frustration over the fact that, despite this prior knowledge, the seat was still allotted to him, indicating a lack of proper maintenance and oversight. “There are not just one such seat but many more,” he remarked, highlighting that this issue might not be an isolated case. While fellow passengers suggested he move to a different seat, Chouhan declined, saying he did not wish to inconvenience anyone else. He chose instead to complete his journey in the broken seat, emphasizing that his discomfort was not the main issue.
Chouhan pointed out that the problem was not just about personal discomfort but the broader issue of fairness and ethics in the airline’s practices. “It is unethical to make passengers sit on bad and uncomfortable seats after charging them full fare. Isn’t this cheating the passengers?” he questioned. Furthermore, he expressed disappointment in the airline’s services, stating that he had initially believed that the takeover of Air India by the Tata Group would lead to an improvement in the quality of service. However, this experience made him realize that his expectations were misguided.
In his post, Chouhan called on the Air India management to take immediate action to ensure that such incidents do not happen again in the future. He urged the airline to address the issue of broken seats and to guarantee that no passenger would have to endure such inconvenience in the future. He concluded by asking whether the airline would continue to take advantage of passengers’ necessity to travel or take steps to rectify the situation.
