Air India will have to shut down and stop operations if the airline is not privatised, Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri said in the Rajya Sabha Wednesday. In a written reply to questions by members, Puri said preparation of a Preliminary Information Memorandum for inviting Expression of Interest (EoI) for 100 per cent divestment of government stake was underway. “The bid document for strategic disinvestment of Air India would also include the matters related to treatment of debt of Air India and its employees’’ matters, the contours of which will be decided by Air India Specific Alternative Mechanism (AISAM),” Puri said in his reply. Air India, which has a debt of nearly Rs 54,000 crore, will however, not be given “any further financial support” as that would “not be the best use of scarce financial resources” of the central government, Puri told the Upper House in his reply. The strategic divestment of Air India has been a cause of concern for the government. Last year, the government tried to sell 76 per cent stake in the airline without any success. This year, a group of officials, including Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, have met several times and are in the process of finalising the EoI to sell the airline. In his answer on Wednesday, Puri brushed aside the concerns of job loss due to privatisation, and said that the “the government would secure a fair deal for all of its employees” in this round of bidding. Post divestment, Air India would have “a status at par with other designated carriers of India”, the minister said. The concerns of the employees will also be considered by the government while finalising the EoI, he said, adding reports of resignation of Air India due to non-payment of salaries was also unfounded as he had “not heard of any single case where anybody has resigned”. To a separate question by Rajya Sabha MP Rakesh Sinha on the employee strength of Air India, Puri said Air India has permanent employee strength of 9,428 and contractual strength of 4,201, out of which 1,551 were employed during the last three years.
