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Airport employees strike over privatisation

    Mumbai/Chennai/Delhi: Thousands of distressed employees of the state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI) protested against the government's decision to privatise the airports in the quest for modernisation, on Tuesday in major metros. On Tuesday afternoon, AAI employees in Chennai, New Delhi and Mumbai organised protest marches and resorted to slogan shouting and public meetings to register their unhappiness over the government's decision to go ahead with the privatisation of the three airports. The agitation was supported by the Left Parties who are also a part of the UPA Government. Brinda Karat, a Member of the Parliament and a Politburo member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) addressed the employees' rally at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. "The entire process of bidding lacked transparency. The emergence of only a single bidder for the two airports at the end of the process has been called an incorrect move by the Prime Minister himself. He also said that it is against the law. Now after the Sreedharan Committee report they say that they are opening it up for more players. So what we argue is that if others are called in, why not allow the AAI too?" said Karat.

    The protestors ranged from the lower level employees to engineers and officers as most felt that the privatisation will show in the form of loss of employment for many. The Indian Government has argued that privatisation is the need of the hour for modernisation and upgradation of existing facilities. MK Ghoshal, the secretary of the New Delhi AAI Employees Union, said that the employees are not against modernisation but the selling off of the entire airports to private players is not acceptable to them at all, especially since the New Delhi and Mumbai airports which are up for bidding first are profit-making ones. Union leaders said that out of the total 124 airports, 22 are in profit and the total profits of AAI last year were Rs. 550 crore. India, Asia's third-largest economy, is seeking private players to pump in resources to revamp its shabby, overburdened state-run airports to keep pace with the increase in passengers. With the opening up of Indian skies to private players, a number of new airlines have begun operations on domestic and international routes, while the infrastructure remained the same. Economists say the Indian economy is surging and predict that the per capita gross domestic product will be as high as 8,442 dollars, from an estimated 691 dollars now. Simultaneously more and more Indians are able to afford a flight now as low budget airlines are making air travel more affordable as against costlier fares before. The air travel industry is estimated to need 50 billion dollars in investment in planes and infrastructure over the next decade to cope with demand, India's aviation minister had said in 2005.
-Jan 24,  2006

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