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Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann kept up his attack on the Centre over the landing of United States planes carrying illegal Indian immigrants at Amritsar airport and asked it not to make the holy city a ‘deport centre’.
A second US flight carrying 119 illegal Indian immigrants is slated to land in Amritsar on Saturday night.
On February 5, a US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal Indian deportees landed at Amritsar airport.
The chief minister visited the airport in Amritsar on Saturday and said his government has made arrangements to take the residents of Punjab from among the second batch of deportees to their hometowns.
“Our vehicles are ready to take them to their places,” Mann said, adding they have also offered to take deportees from Haryana to their hometown. Notably, the Haryana government has already made arrangements to take deportees hailing from the state to their homes.
The deportees who hail from other states will head to Delhi from Amritsar in a flight on Sunday morning and then they will be taken to their respective places, Mann said. He also informed reporters that arrangements have been made to provide meals to the deportees.
According to official sources, the second deportation flight from the US is expected to land at Amritsar airport around 10 pm on Saturday.
Talking to reporters at the airport as reported by PTI , Mann continued his attack on the Centre and said, “Do not make our holy city (Amritsar) a deport centre.”
There are many airbases in the country and the flight can be landed at any one of them, the Punjab chief minister said.
He said Amritsar is known for the Golden Temple, Durgiana Mandir, Ram Tirath temple, Jallianwala Bagh and Gobindgarh Fort.
“Will they allow landing (of deportation flights) at Vatican City, if they (deportees) hail from there?” Mann posed.
