Trinamool Congress leader Saugata Roy today asked the Election Commission to immediately stop the process of privatisation of six major airports as the Model Code of Conduct for the general elections was in force.
In a letter to the Commission, Roy, who is Chairman of the Airports Authority of India Joint Forum, said, "It has come to my knowledge that they (AAI and the Civil Aviation Ministry) want to finalise Requests for Qualification (RFQ) applicants ... And shortlist by March 17 and proceed further."
This was "totally against the spirit of the Election Commission's Code of Conduct" he said, adding the AAI's Key Infrastructure Development Department and the Ministry were moving ahead with the "executive action" of privatising these airports.
Roy demanded that the poll panel should "give immediate instructions to the Ministry/AAI to stall all the proceedings with regard to RFQ/OMT (operations, maintenance and transfer), etc."
After several postponements, the RFQ date has been fixed for March 17 for operation, maintenance and transfer of six airports at Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Guwahati, Jaipur and Ahmedabad. All these airports have already been developed by the AAI at a considerable cost to the public exchequer.
The Ministry recently informed Parliament that apart from privatising these six airports, it intends to give away 14 more to private parties for operation and development during the 12th Plan period.
