Strike at airports turns violent
by Gyanendra Kumar Keshri

    New Delhi: The air service all over the country was normal except minor disruption in Kolkata despite the Airport Authority of India (AAI) employees striking work to protest against the privatisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports. "Our feedback from across the country shows that the flight movement remained unaffected except some disruption at the Netaji S C Bose International airport in Kolkata," said Ajay Prasad, Secretary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. He said that the government has taken every possible measure to ensure smooth functioning of airports across the country so that the passengers did not face any inconvenience. Prasad said that all contingency measures have been taken to ensure smooth functioning of the airport services. "As far as security of passengers is concerned, heavy deployment of police officials has been ensured at the airport to prevent any untoward incident," he added. On dialogue with the employees union, Prasad said that the Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel had already requested all the employees not to go on strike and assured them that not a single employee would lose job. Meanwhile, all flights to and from Kolkata were suspended for hours after crucial services at the airport fell casualty of the agitating employees.

    Agitating employees also clashed with police at Mumbai and Delhi airport as they tried to break police cordon and prevented passengers from entering the airport. At least five AAI employees, one SRP jawan and three constables attached to airport police station were injured in the incident. However, there were no reports of any flight disruption except Kolkata. About 22,000 employees of state-owned Airport Authority of India went on a nation-wide indefinite strike on Wednesday. They are protesting the government's decision to modernise the Mumbai and Delhi airports with the help of private players. The bidding process for the controversial Delhi and Mumbai airport concluded on Wednesday with the Union Cabinet giving its final approval for the selection of GMR-Fraport for Delhi airport and GVK-South African Airports consortia for Mumbai airport. Now the two successful bidders will form two joint venture companies for Delhi and Mumbai in which Airport Authority of India will hold 26 percent stake. When asked about the unsuccessful bidders going to court, Prasad said, "It is the right of any individual to go to court." "On our behalf we have maintained full transparency in awarding the bid and are ready to face any legal action," said Prasad. Two of the unsuccessful bidders- Anil Ambani owned Reliance Airport Developers and Sterlite have threatened to knock at the door of Supreme Court saying that the government departed from the tender conditions just two hours before awarding the final bid which was untenable and unconstitutional.

     A sharp growth in air traffic, due to the launch of several discount carriers in a booming economy, has led to passenger congestion, delayed flights and poor service standards at the run-down airports. Last year, New Delhi and Mumbai handled 49 percent of India's total air traffic of 50 million passengers. The two airports are estimated to require an investment of up to 200 billion rupees (4.5 billion dollars) over a five-year period to construct much-needed parallel runaways, world-class terminals and shopping facilities. Leftist leaders have said they were not against the government's plans to upgrade the two airports to international standards, but they opposed their privatisation.

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