KATHMANDU: Rastriya Yuva Sangh Nepal, Kaski Chapter, a sister organisation of Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has laid a prohibition on Gyanendra Shahi from entering Kaski district.

Shahi had publicly criticised Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai for delaying a flight bound for Kathmandu from Nepalgunj.

In a press release, the youth organisation stated that they are forced to protest against people who misuse social media like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube among others to delude the general public and create conflicts.

Gyanendra Shahi, one of the passengers aboard the flight, was rounded up yesterday from the venue of a press conference he had organised to disclose why passengers had misbehaved with the minister. It has been reported that police released Shahi today.

The whole controversy began when a video was made public on social media in which passengers on board the Kathmandu-bound flight were criticising the Minister for his late arrival causing the flight to delay.

Minister Bhattarai acknowledged that he had arrived late at the airport in Nepalgunj as he was caught up in an event at Tikapur and had issued a public apology, but not without prejudice.

Meanwhile, Buddha Air has also issued a press statement today stating their perspective of the incident. According to the airlines, the flight from Nepalgunj was initially supposed to take-off at 18:25 but it had been rescheduled to 18:40 after the aircraft reached Nepalgunj from Kathmandu later than the stipulated time.

Buddha Air, through its statement, has acknowleged that there had been a delay in the departure of the flight by 24 minutes, on the basis of the revised time given to Nepalgunj Airport. The flight took off at 19:04. The airline company agrees that they had waited for Minister Bhattarai's arrival before they took off and also that a group of passengers had confronted the minister for halting the flight, which caused further delay in its departure.

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