CHENNAI: Lokpal activist Anna Hazare opted to return to his village of Ralegan Siddhi on Monday morning after his flight to the capital was delayed by over three hours due to fog cover. The Gandhian was initially supposed to travel to Delhi by an Air India flight at 9 am, as there was talk of the Lokpal Bill being introduced in Parliament this week. After his flight was rescheduled to 1 pm, he opted to return home by taking the 10.50 am Jet Airways flight to Pune. Sources who accompanied Hazare have indicated that news had reached them that no movement was expected on the Lokpal Bill over the next three days, thus explaining his change of plans. The trip to Delhi itself was a last minute bid after Hazare cancelled his trip to Hyderabad, as originally intended.After three early morning flights that departed from Chennai for Delhi, seven flights were delayed by a minimum of three-and-half hours causing a lot of passenger build up at the domestic terminal. “This year, the problems with fog are actually lesser and have begun very late in December which is later than usual,” explained an ATS official. Two Air India flights, one Jet Airways flight, one Indigo flight and a few others were held up till noon. The Kingfisher flight that was scheduled to depart to Delhi at 6.10 am and return to Chennai by 11.30 am was the only one cancelled.A similar problem was seen with fog over Bengaluru. A British Airways flight from London, carrying 240 passengers, which was scheduled to reach the garden city at 2.30 am, had to be diverted to Chennai early on Monday. The passengers were off-loaded and rested till the flight departed for Bengaluru at 8.20 am. ATS officials believe that problems with fog cover and winter-related phenomena will begin increasing from now on.
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