CPM now wants to halt airport privatisation

After the government rejected an alternative plan for modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports submitted by Left-backed AAI Employees Join...

After the government rejected an alternative plan for modernisation of Delhi and Mumbai airports submitted by Left-backed AAI Employees Joint Forum, the CPI(M) has gone on an offensive and is now pushing for stopping the privatisation process altogether.

CPI(M)’s deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Dipankar Mukherjee has in a letter to the Prime Minister demanded that the process of privatisation of the airports be halted immediately. He said the Empowered Group of Ministers should instead examine the report submitted by a committee comprising the Member Finance in the AAI and VDR Rao which had suggested that the employees work on an alternative proposal.

However, the alternative plan presented by the AAI Employees Joint Forum turned out to be a reworked version of an old plan.

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Mukherjee has also argued against the rejection of the AAI Employees Joint Forum’s alternative plan saying the forum’s plan was not a bid and could not be evaluated on the basis of the criteria set for the bidders.

The letter does not say on what basis should the alternative plan be accepted except saying that during the presentation of the plan on November 28,

‘‘It was amply clear that the scope of work identified for the bidders could be undertaken by AAI with its own technical expertise and financial resources’’ the letter says.

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