Atcs Defer Strike Action Till Today Evening

The air traffic controllers guild yesterday decided to defer its strike till today evening after talks with civil aviation minister C M Ibrahim here, which ended late on Saturday.

The protest has been put off to Monday evening when our guilds central executive committee meets to decide on the next course of action, said Brijendra Shekhar, the Indian Air Controllers Guild general secretary.

Shekhar said the government had said it would look at introducing weekly offs for ATCs, creating new posts and bringing facilities at par with those available to the communications staff. He added that during the talks, civil aviation secretary M M Kaw said the Election Commissions directive stopped the government from taking any new policy decisions, and releasing new financial packages. Kaw also said the government had not yet formally accepted the Lahoti Committee report and, therefore, it could not be implemented.

The civil aviation ministrys proposals will be discussed at todays meeting of the ATC executive committee in the capital, which will be attended by all the regional secretaries of the guild.

Shekhar told Business Standard that contrary to public perception, the ATCs demands are not financial in nature this time. He also rebutted the Airport Authority of Indias claims of major disruptions in flights.

There have been 15-25 minute delays, which I would say is fairly normal. We had asked the airlines to reschedule their flights and hence disruptions are not as wide as they are being made out to be, claimed Shekhar.

Shekhar said the air traffic controllers were only seeking implementation of the Lahoti Commit-tee report which deals with air safety, among other issues. He added that they wanted the government to introduce changes in line with International Labour Organisation and Interna-tional Civil Aviation Organisation recommendations.