This Article is From Mar 12, 2010

Air India merger a 'marriage of incompatible parties'

New Delhi: Once again, the merger between Air India and Indian Airlines has been strongly criticized by a committee of experts. A government Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) panel has described the merger as "the root cause of all that ails India's national airline today."

In January, a parliamentary committee headed by Sitaram Yechury said the merger had been taken in haste, and had "given rise to so many problems concerning financial, administrative and operational (issues), which could not be foreseen by the people who took this decision."

The new report is even tougher, saying the "erroneous" merger is like "a marriage between two incompatible parties."

The PSU panel recommends that in order to crawl out of its financial abyss, Air India and Indian Airlines should function like two separate airlines, with Air India handling international flights and Indian Airlines focusing on the domestic sector.

The committee says it's critical to identify the "agencies and individuals responsible for this whimsical decision."  Members of the panel stop short of naming Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, but say whoever recommended the merger to the cabinet should be held accountable for causing huge losses to a public sector company.
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