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Journalism of Courage
Accusing the previous NDA Government of nearly selling off the national carrier, Air India, Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on Friday said that the UPA has made aviation a “sunrise sector”.
Replying to the discussion on the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India Bill 2007, which was passed by Parliament, Patel lashed out at his predecessor, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, saying that though he spoke passionately about upholding the significance of Air India, “it was, in fact, during the NDA regime that tenders had been issued for selling it off and there was a bid by Tata-Singapore for it”.
He said it was during the NDA rule that Air India lost out to competition, as it was not allowed to buy new carriers. “During the previous regime, the national carrier faced the heat of competition from the private sector because it could not procure aircraft. The NDA Government consciously chose to kill the airline. Earlier, under Rajiv Gandhi’s leadership and now under Dr Manmohan Singh’s government, aircrafts are being procured for the national carrier”, he said.
He added that the Air India-Indian Airlines merger does not spell disaster and it is only to strengthen and fortify them to meet competition. He said competition has led to more choice and facilities and more airlines, ushering in a balance into the sector.
The minister expressed surprise over Rudy’s remark that there was a “cartelisation of Air India-Jet-Sahara”. He said had this been the case then the national carrier would have been levying congestion charges on passengers.
On the Standing Committee recommendations on doing away with the newly introduced user development fee in private airports, Patel said that these are acceptable norms when massive capital expenditure is needed.
