Kochi: Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan on Monday promised more flights to Kerala from the Gulf countries during the coming Onam season.

The minister said starting more flight services was one way out to address the problem of steep rise in airfares for international flights from the Gulf countries during the festival season.

He was addressing the 10th anniversary of the Pravasi Legal Cell here.

Muraleedharan said the Civil Aviation Ministry was also looking at other options to address the issue of the spike in air ticket prices during festival seasons such as Onam. The minister has also agreed to start direct flights from Kerala to Europe in place of the connectivity flights via Gulf regions.

Recently, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had held discussions with Union Civil Aviation officials in New Delhi on various issues, including airfares, increasing flights and further developing aviation infrastructure in the state.

The Chief Minister had sought more flight services by Air India and budget carriers to Kerala.

“We are utilising the Indian Welfare Fund meant for expatriates. The practice of weighing corpses before sending them to Kerala annd charging families accordingly has been discontined for the past two-and-half months. The earlier governments only focussed on diplomatic relations with other nations. Modi government on the other hand is committed to solving the expat problems. We have signed agreements with over 60 countries to facilitate Indian prisoners to return and complete the rest of their sentence in India. However, some prisoners decline this provision for various reasons,” Muraleedharan said.

"The immigration laws are being amended to reduce the exploitation by recruiting agents. The changes in Right to Information Act (RTI) will not affect the independence of the RTI commission. The government is ready to address the concerns in this regard," he added.