Airports again, CPM wants PM statement in House

Two days before the start of the post-recess session of Parliament, the CPI(M) has upped the ante on the issue of privatisation of the Delhi and Mumbai airports, saying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should clarify the issue in the House.

Two days before the start of the post-recess session of Parliament, the CPI(M) has upped the ante on the issue of privatisation of the Delhi and Mumbai airports, saying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should clarify the issue in the House.

CPI(M) MP Brinda Karat has written to the prime minister, pointing out that judicial interventions were becoming necessary to highlight acts of omission and commission by the executive. The CPI(M) had supported the AAI’s bid for privatisation and had intervened on their behalf with the government during the airport staffers’ strike in February. This, when CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury is chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on civil aviation.

‘‘I also hope that…the handing over of Delhi and Mumbai airports would be kept on hold till the issue is clarified in Parliament and clinched by the highest judicial authority. This will have no impact on the ongoing revamping of jobs in these airports which are being carried out by the Airports Authority of India,’’ Karat wrote.

The CPI(M) is miffed at being repeatedly ignored by the Civil Aviation Ministry on its objections to the bidding process for the airports. The Reliance plea in SC, questioning the awarding of the contract to GMR-Fraport, has come as a boost for the CPI(M)’s campaign on the eligibility criteria issue. ‘‘It is only in the context of the questions raised by the Supreme Court judge that the matter assumes importance,’’ Karat wrote.

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