Questions were raised over the quality of ink used to stamp passengers landing at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi after a senior Congress leader shared pictures of the ink smudging and causing what seemed to be an adverse allergic reaction on his skin. National Secretary and Spokesperson of the Indian National Congress Madhu Goud Yaskhi took to Twitter and tagged the Union Minister of Civil Aviation, tweeting, "Dear @HardeepSPuri, can you please look into the chemical being used at Delhi airport for stamping on passengers coming from abroad? Yesterday I was stamped at @DelhiAirport and this is how my hands look now."
He attached two pictures with the tweet.
Responding to his tweet, Hardeep Puri said, "Thank you for drawing my attention to this." He added that he had spoken to the Chairman of the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
Thank you for drawing my attention to this. A have spoken to CMD AAI.
— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) October 4, 2020
Replying to Puri, Madhu Yaskhi said, " Thank you for your prompt action. Hope no other passenger goes through it. "
Madhu Yaskhi is a senior Congress leader from Hyderabad. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he had contested unsucessfully against Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao's daughter K Kavitha for the Nizamabad MP seat. The election was won by BJP's Dharmapuri Arvind.
Meanwhile, Delhi Airport also replied to the message. In a statement on Twitter, the official handle of the airport said, "We deeply regret the inconvenience caused. The ink used for stamping is a standard indelible ink. We've reported the issue to the Delhi State Authorities. Currently, this batch of ink is being kept aside for testing by the supplier and further desired action. Thank you for highlighting this issue."
Stamping is done at certain airports in the country, in tune with quarantine rules laid down by the state governments.
Meanwhile, with a surge of 75,829 coronavirus cases in 24 hours, India's total tally on Sunday crossed the 65-lakh mark, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) data showed.
As per the latest data, 75,829 more cases and 940 more fatalities in 24 hours took India's total cases to 65,49,373 and the COVID-19 death toll to 1,01,782.
Out of the total, 9,37,625 are active cases, while 55,09,966 people have been discharged after recovery
With IANS inputs