Press Statement issued by CITU against Privatisation Statement of Civil Aviation Minister
October 6, 2013
The Centre of Indian Trade Unions denounces the statement of the Civil Aviation Minister on privatization of Air India as published in today\’s Times of India. Honorable Minister must note that the Air India belongs to the nation and is not the property of the council of ministers of the UPA Government. The Minister must also note that the precarious financial situation the Air India is facing today is the creation of the reckless and irresponsible experiment of merger of Air India and Indian Airlines by the Ministry and also the irresponsible decision to purchase aircrafts without preparing for making use of them immediately following arrival of the new aircrafts.

The Committee of Public Undertakings (COPU) made clear observation as above, making the government and Civil Aviation ministry in particular responsible for such huge loss of Air India while recommending concrete corrective measures. The Government did not deliberately act upon these recommendations thereby making the financial situation more critical for Air India. This has given the Minister an opportunity for this proposal for privatization.

The honorable minister mentioned about political will for privatization. At present the Centre is politically inclined to sell and privatize not only Air India but every productive asset and vital infrastructure at its disposal, to the satisfaction of its patrons in the corporate lobby, both domestic and foreign. The Civil Aviation Ministry\’s anxiety for privatization is also visible from it\’s hectic move to hand over free of cost 20 airports of the country to private hands on a revenue sharing basis. Most of these airports were modernized and expanded with huge capital investment of around Rs 20,000 crore plus by Government owned Airport Authority of India.

The CITU calls upon the trade union movement and the workers and employees in general to unitedly protest and resist such anti-people moves of the government for privatization of the entire civil aviation sector to the detriment of national interest.