ATC8217;s at it again

Coming on the heels of the Supreme Court ruling on bandhs, the Air Traffic Controllers' ATC agitation is yet another indication that it i...

Coming on the heels of the Supreme Court ruling on bandhs, the Air Traffic Controllers8217; ATC agitation is yet another indication that it is time to clearly define permissible forms of protest. During the agitation, passengers will emplane as usual, the aircraft will taxi out as usual and then sit on the tarmac for up to an hour waiting for clearance.

For that period, passengers will be confined within the aircraft for what is established as the most stressful part of a flight, with the air conditioning turned down to minimum. It is bound to be a health hazard and obviously, the controllers will not take responsibility for mishaps. This is discounting the danger to dozens of aircraft caught in the holding pattern.

Air Traffic Control is as much an essential service as hospitals. Once upon a time, newspaper photographs of patients lying in hospital corridors during a go-slow brought forth much public indignation. Today, they barely occasion comment. Soon, crippled airports will also be regarded with the same indifference, no matter what human cost is involved. Or whatever the nation might be losing every day of the strike in terms of opportunity cost.

On the other hand, Indian ATCs work in the knowledge that they provide a miserably antiquated service. One year after the Charkhi Dadri crash, the government is yet to do something about the disastrous state of air safety in India. The crash could have been avoided had the Ministry of Civil Aviation heeded the long-standing demand of the ATCs of Delhi for a new corridor, on account of the increase in traffic through the Indira Gandhi International Airport. All it would have taken was a bit of liaison work with the armed forces to get a corridor moved from military to civilian use.

Even after the event, however, the ministry remained completely catatonic. It took the personal intervention of the Prime Minister to get a corridor assigned, at a time when the ATCs were complaining that it was impossible to ensure safety given the state of their infrastructure and that close shaves in the air would continue to occur regularly. If ATCs are forced to carry on in a situation in which they cannot take pride in their work, it is no wonder that they turn restive and start looking for excuses to ask for pay hikes.

The government should stop loudly committing itself to infrastructure and start doing something materially significant about it. And the sector where it should demonstrate actual commitment first is air transport. For starters, it should give ATCs state-of-the-art equipment. At one stroke, it will have rid the Indian skies of their disastrous reputation and wrested the moral high ground from the ATCs. Thereafter, it should treat them as providers of an essential service and curb their right to protest in a manner that can cripple air transport. It is the real gateway to India and must inspire confidence in travellers from overseas. Otherwise, though the nation might be a prime tourist and business destination, its potential will remain unrealised. For an essential service that is at the mercy of its operators, who are always free to lean hard on the government, is a dysfunctional absurdity.