In a sudden development, the civil aviation ministry has asked Directorate General of Civil Aviation chief E K Bharat Bhushan to quit as head of the aviation regulator with immediate effect. Bhushan, who would continue to serve as additional secretary in the ministry, was recently granted an extension as the head of DGCA.
There were no official words on the reasons for Bhushan’s removal from the post. Bhushan handed over charge to Prashant Narain Sukul, a joint secretary in the ministry, who would also officiate as DGCA chief. Sukul is also a director on the Air India board.
Bhushan, an Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1979 batch from the Kerala cadre, had taken charge as DGCA chief from Syed Nasim Ahmad Zaidi in December 2010. As the director-general of DGCA, Bhushan had introduced stringent measures to prevent airlines from compromising on safety, even when they were faced with financial constraints.
During his 20-month tenure as head of the aviation regulatory body, he handled various cases of flouting of aviation rules, including the fake pilots scam and fudging of records by flying schools, and had implemented various corrective measures.
He had also told loss-making Air India and Kingfisher Airlines to pay the dues of their employees soon to ensure their performances were not affected. Both the airlines have defaulted on the payment of salaries and allowances to employees for several months. Bhushan had said safety could be adversely affected by a demotivated staff, particularly pilots, engineers and cabin crew, if they were not paid their salaries and dues on time.
