Consequent to the assurances given by the Union Civil Aviation Minister, Mr.Praful patel, that ‘no airport would be closed down without consulting employees’, the employees of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) ended their non cooperation on Thursday evening to which they had resorted to a couple of days earlier. The non-cooperation movement movement was spearheaded by the Airport Authority of India Employees Union (AAEU) to protest against the closure of Hyderabad and Bangalore Airport. It was also agreed upon during the meeting with the representatives of the Union that no modernization of 35 non-metro Airports would be carried out without the full involvement of the AAI Workers.
The closure of the Airports had to be contemplated to fulfill the obligations arising out of ‘Concession Agreement’ under the ‘Joint Venture Projects’. Under the Agreement, it was obligatory on the part of the Government to close the old Airports with the commissioning of new Airports. According to Mr.M.K.Gohal, the General Secretary of AAEU, the Minister had concurred with the Union’s view that the Agreement had some shortcomings and promised to reexamine the same;but at the same time, he had also reminded themthe fact that the matter is pending before the Court and such reexamination has to be undertaken within an existing framework. In this context, the Government would also endeavor its best to avoid disturbing the non-executive AAI employees,but, at the same time permit those who want to leave voluntarily.
In the meanwhile, the Government has postponed the commissioning of the new Bangalore International Airport to a date after 10th of May 008 from the earlier scheduled date of 30th March 008. The reason cited by the Government for this is non-availability of Air Traffic Control (ATC) services There has been delays in the completion of construction of ATC facilities. However, the inauguration of Hyderabad International Airport would take place as scheduled today (Friday) at 1530hours.
The non-cooperation movement of the employees did not per se disrupt the flight schedules,but, there were other issues that would have brought woes to the passengers. Accumulation of garbages, non-cleaning of the toilets and other deteriorating services relating to basic amenities would have snowballed into major health hazards. By handling the employees in a deft manner, the Government of India had for the present averted a major crisis.
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