Palampur: Follow rules or face licence cancellation, paragliding pilots told

Palampur, November 23

Baijnath SDM Salem Aazam and Deputy Director, Tourism, PP Singh have said that the government would not hesitate to cancel the licences of pilots who bring bad name to paragliding.

While addressing members of the paragliding associations at Baijnath yesterday, they said the Tourism Department would soon undertake an exercise to inspect the documents of pilots and their equipment. No pilot with less than five years of experience will be allowed to fly. Members of the paragliding associations Paragliding associations complained to officers that many pilots were not following safety guidelines of the state government, consuming synthetic drugs and liquor before paragliding and not adhering to the fixed tariff as there was no authority to check them. They said the Bir Billing Paragliding Association (BPA) had already recommended the cancellation of licences of a number of pilots, but to no avail.

Last year too, the state government had ordered the verification of licences but no proper checks were undertaken. — OC