Opposing a government move to hand over key airports in the country to private operators, a CPI-M member today demanded in the Rajya Sabha that public assets should not be handed over to private hands in the name of difficult economic conditions.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Tapan Kumar Sen (CPI-M) said the move is "anti-national" as it involves the key issue of security at airports that cannot be compromised.
Instead of handing over airports to private hands under Public Private Partnership mode, he sought strengthening of public-sector Airport Authority of India (AAI) to help further develop domestic airports. "It is better to give sufficient autonomy to AAI," he said.
He also alleged that only those airports which were already developed were being handed over to private players without making any investments.
Sen said of the total 15 airports, only those which are fully developed and have good commercial traffic are being handed over to private players. He named the airports at Kolkata, Lucknow, Chennai and some others in this regard.
"The move is to help private sector earn windfall profits without making any investment," he said, adding the reason given for improving managements of these airports it "most ridiculous".
"Is that a way to fritter public wealth in the name of reforms," he questioned.
"Don't hand over public properties to private hands in the so-called difficult economic conditions. This is thoroughly anti-national," Sen said, asking the government not to hand over public assets to private hands.
Supporting the demand, Naresh Agrawal (SP) said, "We oppose such a move.
