MANN PLAYING POLITICS OVER DEPORTATION, SAYS BITTU

Chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday again attacked the Centre over the landing of US planes carrying illegal Indian immigrants at Amritsar airport and asked it not to make the holy city a 'deport centre'.

- Surjit Singh

AMRITSAR: Chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Saturday again attacked the Centre over the landing of US 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 117 illegal Indian immigrants landed in Amritsar on Saturday night. While 65 are from Punjab, 33 are from Haryana, eight from Gujarat, three from Uttar Pradesh, two each from Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, and one each from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

On February 5, a US military aircraft carrying 104 illegal Indian deportees landed at the Amritsar airport.

The chief minister visited the airport on Saturday and said "Our vehicles are ready to take them to their places."

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.

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, Mann said: "Do not make our holy city (Amritsar) a deport centre."