Airport staff threaten to block upgrade

Employees of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) today threatened to block modernisation of Chennai and Kolkata airports if it was undertaken on the same lines as privatisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports.

"We are not against modernisation. We are against the move if the government is adopting privatisation as a step to modernise the airports. This is our stand for all the airports in the country," said M K Ghoshal, convener, Airports Authority of India Employees' Forum after an hour-long meeting of the tripartite committee on airports modernisation.

The meeting, to sort out the concerns of AAI employees over privatisation of airports, ended in a stalemate, with the government not presenting a report of the tentacle adviser to the meeting.

AAI employees, at the last meeting of the committee, had demanded making public the grounds on which the alternative plan of the employees to modernise Delhi and Mumbai airports was rejected.

"The government has not been able to give us a reply on this. We will be meeting on March 29 on the issue," said Ghoshal.

Government officials who attended the meeting said the government would have to go ahead with modernisation of airport infrastructure in the country.

The tripartite committee was constituted on the direction of the prime minister to end the strike by airport employees who were protesting privatisation of the Delhi and Mumbai airports.

Representatives of AAI employees have also asked the government to prepare a white paper on the developments at Delhi and Mumbai airports after the government decided to hand them over to private companies.

The employees also wanted details of employee retention and absorption plans of the private companies once the two airports were taken over by them. The government, on its part, has said the AAI was not being privatised and employees need not worry about losing jobs.

It was also pointed out that the two companies that bagged the two airports were ready to absorb more employees than required under the present norms.