Shri. Prafulla Patel blamed for Air-India’s Rs. 7,200 Crore loss- Centre for Protection of Rights Demands C.B.I. probe

Shri. Prafulla Patel  blamed for Air-India’s  Rs. 7,200 Crore loss- Centre for Protection of Rights Demands C.B.I. probe

Nagpur - April 22, 2011

A prominent citizen right protection group in vidarbha has sought action against former civil aviation minister Praful Patel squarely blaming him for pushing the national carrier to bankruptcy during his seven year tenure in the ministry. 

In a letter faxed to prime minister Manmohan Singh on Monday, Kondawar has urged him to order a CBI inquiry against Patel. He alleged that because of total mismanagement of the civil aviation ministry during Patel's tenure that things got from bad do worse and today the national airlines is finding it difficult to even pay salaries to its staff. "Late JRD Tata who so fondly created Air India and took it to glorious heights as world's top airline must be turning in his grave at the miserable condition that it has now landed in. The CAG has also raised serious doubts over Patels' decision of merging Indian Airlines and Air India. Members of parliament have also demanded a white paper and a JPC probe into the affairs of Air India whose accumulated losses had mounted to over Rs 7,000 crore in 2008-09," said Dr. Gopal  Kondawar president of NGO said  in his letter. 

Here is text of letter faxed to Indian prime minister

Quote

 Request to Order High Level Investigations, Enquiry & Action in the style & functioning of Shri. Prafulla Patel as Civil Aviation Minister.

To,

            Manmohan Singh,

            Hon’ble Prime Minister of India,

            PMO,Govt. Of IndiaNew Delhi.

REG : Complaint in the Matter of Huge loss caused to National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL) which controls Air India, the National Airlines of India

Sub:    Request to Order High Level Investigations, Enquiry & Action in the style & functioning of Shri. Prafulla Patel as Civil Aviation Minister for a period of Seven Years which caused huge loss to National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL) which controls Air India, the National Airlines of India :

 Request to take immediate action on Mr. Patel to remove him from Union Council of Ministers and to institute criminal prosecution for wilful loss caused to NACIL by Minister Mr. Praful Patel during his tenure for his pecuniary advantages gained out of decisions taken by his Civil Aviation Ministry during his tenure.

Hon’ble Sir,

I am citizen of India and living at the address mentioned hereinabove. I am post graduate in the faculty of Science and also completed My Doctoral degree in the department of  Mathematics. I have contributed for the cause of upliftment of Education, building construction and infrastructure development in an around Vidarbha Region of Maharashtra State. Now I am devoting my time for the cause of Protection of Rights as Guaranteed by  the Constitution of India, as a Founder President of Centre for Protection of Rights, which is a unit of SMILE charitable trust, registered NGO at Maharashra.

Sir, I am very much disturbed to know the rampant corruption and mis management of National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL) which controls Air India, the National Airlines of India. When I thoroughly examined the aspects behind the gross failures of  NACIL, I came to know most shocking and serious involvement of Mr. Prafulla  Patel  who had been functioning as Minister in charge of the Civil Aviation Department  of Govt. of India during period May 2004 to November 2010.

The details of the  malfunctioning and mis management of National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL) due to active roll &  involvement of Mr. Prafulla Patel are as under :-

1.      The seven years tenure of Mr. Prafulla Patel of Ministry of Civil Aviation during your tenure as Prime Minister has been marked with greed in relation to misuse of power for the purpose of personal monetary gain.  However, I take this opportunity to point out a few things and request you that you can set out a precedence since no other Prime Minister has shown courage to order CBI enquiry in Department of Civil Aviation during the tenure of Mr. Prafulla Patel as Minister of Civil Aviation before it was handed over to Mr. Vayalar Ravi, who is supposed to be non corrupt politician till this date.

2.      Late JRD Tata the founder of Air India during whose tenure for 7 years Air India was No.2 Airlines in the world and for one year No.1 in the world, must be turning in his grave as he could not have imagined that the airline which he started with utmost care and personal attention could come to pass that it would not be able to pay employees salary and the Ministry and its in-charge will indulge into such kind of corruption which he never dreamt of.  I hope that the dreams which are seen by Late JRD Tata for India must be also your dream.

3.      I am sure since you are a scholarly person with international acclaim, because of behaviour of your colleagues in Ministry, including Mr. Prafulla Patel, you must be every day reminded of the speech of Winston Churchill, the then Prime Minister of Britain, when India was granted freedom .  Of course, what he forecast in his speech we have gone miles ahead than that and thanks to your colleagues for that.  However, I am restricting presently only about the misconduct and laundering of money for personal gain plundering the govt.treasure and putting one of the finest airlines in a situation of liquidation though the Companies Act and merging it with Air India. But the fact remains that the Air India has already become bankrupt and is not in a position to pay the salary unless the Government of India helps it.  Therefore, my first demand is that, let there be a movement by the employees of Air India for non payment of salary and let the Airlines be closed because of that, and situation arisen due to decision taken by Mr. Patel of emerging Indian Airlines with Air India for personal monetary gain and in total disregard to the policy of the Government and in abuse of power.

4.      The Central Government should not pay a single rupee to Air India unless the money which is swindled and looted by Mr. Prafulla Patel during his seven years tenure is recovered.  Now, in support of this I quote few examples.

1.      Air India controlled by Ministry of Civil Aviation under Mr. Prafulla Patel has caused huge loss of Rs.5,000 crore in 2008-09 and accumulated losses expected at Rs.7,200 crore., primarily due to awarding bilateral rights to foreign airlines on routes where AI had traditionally made profits, purchase of aircraft and pulling out the carrier from profitable and busy domestic routes.

2.      Non-Congress members have also demanded a white paper and a probe by Joint Parliamentary Committee into the affairs of Air India for such huge loss of Rs.5,000 crore in 2008-09 and accumulated losses expected at Rs.7,200 crore.

3.      It is not understood and not known why new planes were being bought from two different companies, and why AI was giving away bilateral rights to international airlines.  Giving the specific instance of Emirates, Mr. Patel said that while the Gulf-based airline was operating 185 flights every week to various destinations in India, Air India could, in return, operate a meagre 20-25.This itself begs an answer !

4.      In the Parliament on the queries made by Hon’ble Members, Mr.Patel said the government was planning equity infusion in AI and soft loan, something that has never been done in its 60-year history.  He justified acquisition of new fleet on the ground that it was ageing and despite new arrivals, only 55 of 111 airlines have been received, average age of planes is 15 years.

5.      Admitting that despite merger, a solution has not been found in three years, Patel ascribed continuing losses to global recession which has resulted in losses by airline companies throughout the world.  He also said surge in oil prices has adversely impacted the cost of operation and contributed to bad financial health.

6.      There is one project which is coming in Nagpur called MIHAN and several acres of land has been acquired paying compensation of thousands of crore rupees. In direct contravention of Air Craft Act

7.      The another reason for bankruptcy of Air India is allowing foreign Airlines to operate on All Routes and Mr. Patel has maintained in Parliament that this decision is Right, however, the implementation is poor.

8.      That Prafulla Patel is involved in bungling can be proved beyond doubt by the following facts:

·         Praful Patel’s actions as Civil Aviation Minister have led Air India to loss and disaster.

·         Indian Airlines change to Air India was Mr. Patel’s decision but it did not make any difference for better.  Then Indian Airlines was merged with Air India.  The merger was supposed to save money.  Things went from bad to worse.

·         Air India suffered. Private airlines prospered.  For months some of them did not pay fuel bills.  During IPL Air India passengers had to wait for hours as scheduled flights were delayed to fly IPL teams.

·         When private airlines increased fares, Paul Patel did not tell passengers to fly Air India.  He told private airlines to reduce fare and threatened them if they did not do so.  What is Praful Patel’s problem if private airlines charge “Astronomical” fares? Why can’t Air India use this opportunity?  Air India could have gained.  It needs Thousands of Crores of Rupees to keep going.

·         Praful Patel has asked for extra Rs.3,500 crore  for Air India from the Treasury of Govt. of India, and has warned of strikes by Air India employees if wages were not paid.  Air India has an accumulated loss of Rs. 7,200 Crore and working capital loans of around Rs. 18,000 Crore Praful Patel is responsible for the mess.

·         People’s money should not be wasted on Air India.  If there is no possibility of improvement without spending further money, it should be privatised or wound up.  Employees who go on strike can find jobs somewhere else. Having committed such mess as Civil Aviation Minister Mr. Praful Patel has no right to continue as Minister in your Cabinet

9.      Apart from Mr. Patel, the tribe of babus and netas is squarely responsible for bringing Air India to this state.  Air India which is now Indian Airlines and the old-time Air India together, is making a daily loss of Rs. 11 Crore.  What’s worse, there is no hope on the horizon – NACIL, the aviation company would continue to bleed.  The aviation minister says an infusion of $3 billion may be required to put the airline on keel.  But the question is : Where is the money in these times of slowdown?  Moreover, with a bloated staff strength of over 30,000, which airlines can run profitably?  The company’s annual losses in the last fiscal (2008-09) stood at Rs.5,000 crore, up from Rs.2,226 crore in the year before.

For decades the babu-neta combine has treated India’s national carrier as a milch cow that would pamper their personal whims.  This is even as politics and bureaucratic delays have characterized decision making in Air India.  For a decade and a half, the management of the airline could not decide what plane to buy to modernize and augment its fleet.  As Boeing and Airbus lobbied and counter-lobbied, files went to and forth but no decision could be taken.  Meanwhile, the losses of the airline mounted.  In the mid-nineties, Air India made a loss of roughly a little over Rs.300 crore annually – that is Rs.1 crore per day.  It may not be out of place to point out that the IAS lobby has fully captured Air India and Indian Airlines for the last 20 years with the chairman and managing director of the two airlines coming from this service.

10.  Now, tracing the history Late JRD Tata, when he started Air India in 1956, had envisaged it as the soft arm of Indian diplomacy, visible across the globe as the face of India.  “But today with 182 weekly flights from India, soon to go up to 193 flights, Emirates Air could well qualify as the national carrier of India,” says an aviation analyst sarcastically.  “Nobody but the babus and netas want to travel by it.  And one reason for this is the convoluted routes that they have.  My sister who stays in Chennai wanted to fly to Chicago.  Air India routed her from Chennai to Delhi, then from Delhi to Frankfurt and from there to Chicago.  In contrast foreign airlines would have taken her from Chennai to Chicago with a stop in either Dubai or Abu Dhabi.  Why should anyone want to travel by Air India?”  The analyst asks.All through the nineties, Air India could not take advantage of bilateral aviation agreements with other countries that entitles airlines to run flights to these countries.  This is because Air India did not have a big enough fleet.  Since Air India could not exploit them, these slots to which India was entitled lapsed.  But in later years Jet Airways has taken up a few slots.

11.   The ulterior motive and personal gain at the cost of national interest were the only two aims of the Ministry of Civil Aviation led by Mr. Praful  Patel for seven years and that of bade babus, IAS officers, and others and, therefore, inspite of all these misdeeds apart from the following I recommend that if you feel inspite of all these misdeeds of Civil Aviation Minister and not having over the matter to CBI for investigation and direct that Mr. Praful Patel should be in jail till the investigation is completed and charge sheet is filed against him and his sycophant bade babus, IAS officers and other officers involved and released on bail by competent court as the court will not do in view of the Lokpal Bill which is likely to come under which even the Supreme Court Judges comes within the purview of the said Bill, then kindly award a Bharat  Ratna to him because no other Minister has indulged into such kind of corruption.

The statistic speaks about the malafide of Mr. Patel

In 2006-07, the year before the merger, IA and AI made a combined loss of Rs.740 crore.  In the first year of combined operations (2007-08) this loss jumped to Rs.2,267 crore.  The next year, 2008-09, the losses rose to Rs.5,000 crore.  Sources tell me that in the period April,-August of 2009, the combined airline has already made a loss of Rs.2,000 crore.  In other words, the airline has in the last three years since integration chalked up a loss of over Rs.10,800 crore.  That is equivalent to $2.6 billion.

The loss of $2.6 billion comes even as the airline is planning to induct 43 Airbus aircraft into the former IA segment.  The cost of the acquisition is roughly the same as this $2.6 billion.  But that money, which would be required for the new inductions, has already been lost!

12.  Therefore, I respectfully pray and demand –

                                           I.            That, entire tenure of Shri. Praful Patel as a Civil Aviation Minister for 7 years and all the decisions taken therein should be examined by CBI or by giving investigation to the some independent investigation agency by the Prime Minister himself as it comes under your office and setting out a precedence for the future Prime Minister to come and throw him out of the Cabinet and a direction be issued that during the pendency of investigation, he should remain  out of cabinet and also the sycophant babus who are involved in the decision making process and in committing dacoit on the treasury of our country they should not be spared unless the orders are passed by the competent court after filing of charge sheet.

                                        II.            Similarly, their properties should be confiscated and will remain under the custody till they prove their innocence  OR IN THE ALTERNATIVE

a.       on behalf of 125 Crore people of India, you being an Honest Prime Minister  your reputation as a man of integrity has taken a beating due to the actions of such corrupt people in your cabinet. I request you, as an  earnest citizen of India to redeem yourself by removing people like Mr. Prafulla Patel to task and set an example.

I hope and trust that either of demand made by me will be acceptable to you and you will take cognizance of my complaint and I will be one of the fortunate citizens of India to get reply from an honest Prime Minister, who will set out a new precedence, who will make people of India proud.

With this hope and trust I close.

Thanking you in anticipation.

Yours sincerely,
(Dr.Gopal Laxman Kondawar)
Founder President – Centre for Protection of Rights

unquote

 letter has raise certain questions regarding the decision of minister ordering to Stop operations in busy and profitable domestic routes, not using bilateral agreements with countries to start overseas flights, placing of large orders for new aircraft from Boeing and Airbus when Air India could ill-afford it, were among the issues that need to be probed, he said.

 

"Unmindful of threat of a major coalition partner (DMK) pulling out of the UPA, the prime minister gave clearance for action against telecom minister A Raja when allegations of corruption in 2-G spectrum scam were raised. I am hopeful that the PM will show the same courage in ordering inquiry against Patel who belongs to the NCP," said Kondawar

"Patel's announcement that Boeing was starting its MRO in Mihan has not materailsed till date. It was just an eyewash," wrote Kondawar demanding that Patel be kept out of the cabinet of ministers till investigations against his role as aviation minister are completed," he said.

NGO is moving in the Supreme Court if Indian Prime Minister failed  sack the concerned corrupt minister.

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