CPM, Left unions oppose airport sale

Shelve any plans to privatise airports, Surjeet tells civil aviation minister in a letter

A day after government scaled down the private or foreign investment limit for modernisation of two airports, CPI(M) and its affiliated trade union Citu yesterday opposed any move to privatise Delhi and Mumbai airports saying the Airports Authority of India (AAI) was a profit-making public sector undertaking (PSU), even as its employees staged demonstrations in different parts of the country on the issue.

"We are opposed to privatisation of profit-making PSUs as are those in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). Our common minimum programme includes this. The government must take the workers and managements of the AAI into confidence before deciding anything on the matter," CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury said at a rally organised by the Airports Authority Employees Union (AAEU) here.

Citu chief MK Pandhe, another politburo member, and other senior party MPS, Sunil Khan and Dipankar Mukherjee, also maintained the same refrain at the rally.

Their warning came a day after Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel announced reduction of private or foreign direct investment limit for modernisation of the two airports to 49 per cent from 74 per cent fixed by the erstwhile Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

Meanwhile, CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet has shot off a letter to Patel requesting him to "shelve any plans to privatise airports in our country".

Observing that the decision to privatise these airports "under the garb of restructuring" was taken by the NDA government, Surjeet said the profits earned from Mumbai and Delhi airports, if these were privatised, would not be available for the upkeep and maintenance of other airports in the country, as was being done now.

"If the intention is modernisation of these airports, the reserve fund of approximately Rs 2,000 crore may be used for this purpose," Surjeet said.

AAEU general secretary MK Ghoshal asked why were the two most profit-making airports being privatised. "They can sell the Gaya airport," he said.

Ghoshal said the new UPA government should clearly spell out its policy on airport privatisation in the light of the common minimum programme.

Asked whether they would agree on "leasing" of airports instead of selling the prime properties, he said "we do not want to rent our house. We have the money and the experts. We are capable of modernising the airports. No civil aviation minister from Ananth Kumar to Rajiv Pratap Rudy have been able to explain to us why do they want to privatise these two airports".

The IAAI Officers Association, in a statement, opposed the same of the two airports saying the government could allow private parties to build new airports in Noida near Delhi and Navi Mumbai and allow a "fair competition".