Airport issue starts war of words on FB

SURAT: A war of words has begun on the 'We Want Working Airport at Surat' (WWWAS) page on Facebook against the BJP and Congress for taking undue political mileage on the burning issue of proper air connectivity and a fully functional airport at Surat.
The WWWAS, which has more than 10,000 members, is flooded with hundreds of comments by the FB members who have vented their ire against Union minister of state for highways, Tushar Chaudhary for his statement at the press conference on last Saturday saying 'If the people of Surat want a working airport, there is no need for agitation, instead they should approach us directly.It is the Congress government, which has developed the airport and approved Indian Airlines flight between Surat and New Delhi in 2007'.
Chaudhary met the mediapersons immediately the next day when the BJP had organised an agitation programme at Surat airport taking support from the industry and trade associations on Friday. About 45 senior BJP leaders including mayor Raju Desai, BJP MP from Navsari, CR Patil and BJP MP from Surat Darshana Jardosh were detained by the city police for halting the Indian Airlines flight for about an hour.
Manish Kapadia, a WWWAS member wrote, "This shows the state of mind of senior minister in the UPA that they are not in favour of giving a fully operational airport to the denizens of Surat. Guys we have to give them a befitting reply by reorganizing ourselves for the air connectivity issue."
Ishan Desai, another WWWAS member wrote, "Please stop taking political mileage out of this issue. It is now turning into BJP vs Congress fight. I request the leaders of Congress and BJP to leave their political grievances aside and join common citizens of this vibrant city to fight collectively for the air connectivity issue."
Some set of the WWWAS members believe the whole issue is a political fracas and all are hand in glove, be it Congress or the BJP.
Prashant Shah, a WWWAS member wrote, "Neither BJP nor Congress leaders are interested in getting the airport operational and none of the airlines seems to be interested in starting the flight services as they have their hands full at other locations. The ruling party blames the opposition and the opposition blames the ruling party."
One of the WWWAS members, Sanjay Jain was critical of the development. He wrote, "If there are no flights, we should boycott the central government by not giving any taxes. If at all there are income tax raids in the city, we should collectivity protest against those raids."
Kaplesh B Patel, another member wrote, "Now, I am leaving this group, whose main intention was to fight for the air connectivity. The reason being BIG politicians have taken the centrestage, making it a political fight."
"This is really frustrating. It is taking almost seven hours to reach Mumbai and get connecting flight. If we reach early, we end up spending more money in Mumbai. The only way is the next time when the PM or the Congress leaders and ministers visit the city in their private charter planes, their landing at the airport should be blocked and people should gather on the runway so that their planes keep on circling for hours in the sky and waste their time," said Sunil Chowdhary, another WWWAS member.