New Delhi: As many as 133 cases were pending before the national carrier Air India with regard to indiscipline, mismanagement and corruption, among other complaints, in 2014, the government said today. Giving details of complaints regarding “absenteeism/ indiscipline/maladministration/mismanagement/corruption etc”, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said there were 133 such cases pending last year.
In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, he said that 60 “penalty/warnings” were issued in 2014 while charges were not established in 32 complaints. Last year, three cases were closed due to death, voluntary retirement or retirement of concerned individuals. The count of cases pending last year is way higher than 60 registered in 2013. The same was at just 28 in 2012.
Meanwhile, 255 penalty or warnings were issued in 2013, and the number was slightly lower than 261 seen in 2012. As on January 1, 2015, the national carrier had 11,860 employees excluding those working with its two subsidiaries — Air India Engineering Services Ltd and Air India Air Transport Services Ltd.
The aircraft to employee ratio in Air India stood at 1:122. Sharma said that Air India has been incurring losses during the past few years with the last fiscal’s losses at Rs 6,279.60 crore. Under Air India’s turnaround and financial restructuring plans, government has approved an infusion of Rs 30,231 crore equity into the carrier upto 2021, provided it meets certain milestones.
The Minister said that while allocating traffic rights, priority is given to the operational plan of Air India. “Grant of traffic rights to scheduled domestic carriers depends on the request received from them based on their commercial judgement and availability of traffic rights to operate on international route,” he added.
