The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre and
Air India on a plea seeking a CBI/SIT probe into alleged irregularities
in the purchase of 111 aircraft for the national carrier costing
Rs.67,000 crore to the exchequer when Praful Patel was Civil Aviation
Minister.
A bench of justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad
sought response from the government, the national carrier and CBI on a
petition filed by an NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation,
alleging that various decisions taken during the tenure of Patel were
meant to benefit private airlines and caused huge loss to Air India.
The CPIL has also sought probe into taking on lease aircraft that again dented the exchequer by "thousands of crores of rupees".
The
NGO, in its petition, has referred to several of Patel's decisions,
including the "massive" purchase of 111 aircraft for national airlines
costing about Rs 70,000 crores,taking a large number of planes on lease,
giving up profit-making routes and timings in favour of private
airlines and the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines.
The NGO approached the apex court challenging a Delhi high court order dismissing its plea into the alleged irregularities.
The
high court had refused to pass any order on the NGO's plea for a probe
into Air India's fleet expansion programme and its decision to purchase
111 planes at a whopping Rs 67,000 crore, saying that the Public
Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament is already looking into it.
"A
responsible committee like PAC is looking into the matter and we are
not giving any direction at this stage but expect PAC to look into the
matter from all angles...," the high court had said.
Besides this,
the CPIL has also prayed for probe into the national carrier leaving
profitable routes and timings "for the benefit of private airlines".
A
probe has also been sought into Air India giving away its bilateral
rights to foreign carriers.The notice is returnable in four weeks.
Acquisition of 111 aircraft for Air India in 2005-06
Former
civil aviation minister Praful Patel defended the acquisition of 111
aircraft for Air India in 2005-06 after a Comptroller and Auditor
General (CAG) report indicated that this purchase led to the downfall of
Air India .
The CAG said that the entire acquisition (for both
Air India and Indian Airlines) was to be funded through debt (to be
repaid through revenue generation), except for a relatively small equity
infusion of Rs.325 crore for Indian Airlines.
The CAG report
slammed the decisions made by the government to buy new aircraft, which
was driven by the aviation ministry, and the dismal management practices
had led to the downfall of Air India.
Reviewing the decision to
buy 68 Boeing aircraft for Air India and 43 Airbus planes for Indian
Airlines, the report termed the acquisition process ill-timed and driven
from the top, resulting in the airline accumulating a massive debt of
Rs.38,423 crore as on March 31, 2010.
http://english.samaylive.com
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