Madhya Pradesh government’s aircraft Beechcraft Super King, which was damaged in a mishap earlier this month, did not have any insurance cover, government officials revealed. The state will, therefore, not receive any amount against the damages estimated to be around worth ₹46 crore, they added.
Likewise, the state government’s helicopter, used by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, also does not have any insurance cover, the officials cited above added.
A Beechcraft Super King, which can carry up to nine passengers, was damaged after it crash-landed at Gwalior airport on May 6. The aircraft was carrying remdesivir injections from Hyderabad and was being flown by S Majid with Shivshankar Jaiswal as co-pilot when the incident occurred. Revenue department official Dilip Dwivedi was also present in the aircraft.
The plane crashed as it hit the arresting barriers put up by the Air Force to control high speed jets.
“No one received any major injuries even though the aircraft was badly damaged and can’t be repaired, causing damage of about ₹46 crore equal to cost of the aircraft,” a senior government official told HT, on the condition of anonymity.
In the absence of an insurance policy, the state government will not get any amount for the aircraft as the damage caused is beyond repair.
Madhya Pradesh aviation department director, B Vijay Dutta, confirmed that the aircraft and helicopter are not insured. An EC 155 helicopter, which has a carrying capacity of eight persons, is used by the state government.
“Like MP, there are many states which don’t purchase aviation insurance. In March, we decided to buy insurance and invited tenders from aviation insurance companies. On May 3, we floated a tender but unfortunately, the aircraft, which was being used in emergency service of supplying remdevisir injections, met with the accident,” he told HT.
Attacking the government for putting the lives of several people at risk, aviation staff and VVIPs at risk, MP Congress Committee spokesperson Saed Jaffar said: “This is a major flaw in the policy of the state government. Who will be responsible for the loss of ₹46 crore? MP police challans a two-wheeler for not having insurance but the state government doesn’t find it necessary to insure its aircraft and helicopter.”
BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal, however, said the government is trying to minimise the loss incurred. “It is a technical issue but the state government is trying to lower the loss. If there was a flaw in the policy, why didn’t the previous Congress government buy insurance,” he said.
Anant Sethi, former chief pilot of Madhya Pradesh government aviation department, said, “The state government never opted for insurance of any vehicle, movable and immovable property, because of the huge premium. This is a major flaw in the policy and needs to be corrected. The state government has realised the mistake and started the process to get insurance of state aircraft done. Unfortunately, before the insurance could have been done, the aircraft met with an accident ,” he said.
Asked to comment on the matter, principal secretary at chief minister’s office Manish Rastogi said: “The aviation department officers have better knowledge about it and they will comment on this.”