Since the past two months, the lost and found department at the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) is charging passengers who come to reclaim their lost/forgotten baggage after three days.
When Mangesh Shinde, 32, an advertising executive, forgot his Acer laptop at Mumbai airport during security check before boarding a Mumbai-Delhi Jet Airways flight, he thought he would reclaim it after returning to Mumbai. Three days later when he went to the lost and found section, he was told that he will have to pay Rs1,627 as demurrage charges to get it back.
“I was quite stunned as this was not the first time that I had forgotten my things at the airport. I am a frequent traveller. Even when I had forgotten my mobile phone earlier, nobody charged me. They returned it to me after going through my identity proof. This is ridiculous,” he said.
Since the past two months, the lost and found department at the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) is charging passengers who come to reclaim their lost/forgotten baggage after three days. People are charged anywhere between Rs150 to Rs500 per day plus service tax. For instance, the fee for a laptop is Rs350 per day while that for a mobile phone is Rs200 per day.
Until now, forgotten items were kept with the lost and found department and returned to the passenger after going through their identity proofs. “It was a service that was free of cost. Now they are trying to make money out of this. Do they know how much harassment a person has to go through after he has forgotten his valuables,” asked Bhavesh Desai, a frequent flyer.
Another frequent flyer, Darshan Rathod, 27 and CEO of a private firm, is okay with paying some charges. “A one-time charge of say Rs150 is fair enough. What if a person goes to collect his items after 10 days? Will he have to pay Rs1,500 plus service tax? That is not justified,” he says.
When contacted, the spokesperson for MIAL said: “We have lost and found counters at both domestic and international terminals, which are operational round the clock. We levy a basic charge which goes towards maintaining this facility,” he said.
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