This Article is From Jun 21, 2013

Airports Authority of India withdraw mass casual leave

Airports Authority of India withdraw mass casual leave

File photo of AAI employees

New Delhi: Operations at the Airports Authority of India (AAI) run airports are likely to remain normal on Friday after the employees on Thursday decided to withdraw their mass casual leave against the privatisation of Kolkata and Chennai airports.

The employees, owing allegiance to the Airports Authority Employees' Union (AAEU), had earlier decided to go on mass casual leave on Friday to protest the proposed privatisation of Kolkata and Chennai airports "through the back door."

"We have decided to defer the mass casual leave call as AAI Chairman V P Agarwal has assured us that he would apprise the Civil Aviation Ministry about the sentiments of employees regarding privatisation of Kolkata and Chennai airports, and reopening of old Hyderabad and Bangalore airports," Balraj Singh Ahlawat, General Secretary AAEU told PTI.

But we have decided to hold lunch-hour demonstrations at all the airports, he added.

The Civil Aviation Ministry recently decided to hand over the management of these two major airports, developed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), to private parties through a global bidding process.

Alleging that the government's intention was to handover all major airports in the country to the corporates, Mr Ahlawat said "almost 90 per cent of traffic come from major airports and if they too are privatised, then what will be left with us?"

The government, which has privatised Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad airports in 2006, recently decided to privatise the management of Kolkata and Chennai airports, which the AAI has developed and is operating.

The AAEU is the largest union of the AAI employees with over 7,000 members.

Left trade union CITU had also opposed the government's move to privatise the management of Kolkata and Chennai airports, saying it would allow private players to "make undue profit out of public resources."

Government should "refrain from de facto privatisation of these premier remunerative airports in view of its serious repercussions," Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) General Secretary Tapan Sen had said.

"At this juncture, inducting a private player in this job obviously means allowing them to make undue profit out of public resources," said Mr Sen.

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