Minister's bag goesmissing, traced later

PATNA: Bihar tourism minister Sunil Kumar 'Pintu' had not imagined in the wildest of his dreams that the mementos given to him during his China tour would go missing in his homeland. But thanks to mismanagement on part of Air India, the minister's baggage carrying mementos, clothes and documents went missing at the Indira Gandhi International airport in Delhi on Sunday.
The minister, who returned from his weeklong China tour along with CM Nitish Kumar and others on Sunday afternoon, found his baggage missing at the state capital's Jayaprakash Narayan International (JPNI) airport here.
"At the JPNI airport, I was surprised to know that one of my bags was missing. I was stressed since the missing bag contained all the mementos and citations, necessary documents and clothes," Pintu told TOI.
As if this was not enough, the AI officials on duty here on Sunday didn't seem to take his complaint seriously. "I complained to them and asked for an immediate solution. But they took it very casually," Pintu, BJP MLA from Sitamarhi, added.
Pintu also filled in the complaint form. "The AI officials here told me the luggage can be brought back only on Monday morning," Pintu said adding, "I immediately contacted AI officials in Delhi who assured me the missing luggage would be urgently traced out."
The eight-member Bihar government delegation, which returned to Delhi from China on Saturday night, had boarded AI's Delhi-Patna-Delhi flight (IC-407) at Indira Gandhi International airport, New Delhi, at around 11 am.
IC-407 was 20 minutes late in taking off from its scheduled time at 11.40am, and along with other delegates Pintu had boarded the plane well before time.
AI sources, however, said the minister must have been late in boarding due to which the luggage could not be loaded.
"A property irregularity report has been prepared and sent to Delhi and the bag is being traced out. We have the contact information of Sunil Kumar Pintu. We will inform him as soon as his luggage arrives," AI sources said.
Later in the evening, the minister was informed that his luggage has been found at IGI airport and would be sent to Patna by AI's evening flight IC-415.