Come out with white paper on Air India: BJP to Centre

BJP today asked the Centre to come out with a white paper on Air India and clarify whether it intended to shut down the national carrier, accusing the government for not taking any action against those responsible for its current state of affairs.

"There is complete mayhem in Air India. The organisation is on the verge of shutting down. Does the government want to privatise it. It should come out with a white paper on the issue. Will the government take action against those responsible for it? We want a categorical response," BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.

The former union minister for Civil Aviation said Air India was incurring a loss of Rs 22 crore daily and had run into a debt of around Rs 40,000 crore.

"The government has now given Rs 250 crore more to Air India.  But the pilots have not been paid for two months, the cabin crew for three months and the ground staff which has a strength of around 3,500 has also not got salaries for this period," Rudy said.

Similarly, food caterers are awaiting payments and oil companies which supply fuel for aircraft have not been paid for three months, he maintained.

"The aircraft utilisation in Air India is only of 8-9 hours while in other airlines it is upto 16 hours," he said.

The BJP also questioned the manner in which CMD Arvind Jadhav was appointed within 24 hours without following proper procedures and he had led the organisation to this state in the last three years.