Former Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) Vinod Rai has claimed that former Union Minister of Civil Aviation Praful Patel had pressurized the Air India board to buy an extra 40 planes.
Rai said that Patel put pressure on the Air India board during his tenure at the Civil Aviation Ministry, which caused the flag carrier to purchase 68 planes instead of the 28 that it was originally to be bought. These extra planes, said Rai, were bought at a cost of Rs 38,000 crore.
Rai also said that the Air India board is supposed to keep the books in balance and purchase only the minimal required and buying so many planes at such a great debt could have never been possible in a private airline.
In an interview with Times Now, The former CAG further alleged that officials from the Aviation Ministry had put pressure on him to drop Patel's name from the report.
Responding to these allegations, Patel said that the purchase of the extra aircrafts was a collective board decision and that there was no question of anybody from the board putting pressure on the then CAG.
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