Merger of national carriers was collective decision of UPA: Praful Patel
May 30, 2017 18:39
Former civil aviation minister Praful Patel today termed as 'multi-tiered and collective' the decisions to merge Air India and Indian Airlines, and the order to purchase 111 aircraft by the state-run carriers, a day after the Central Bureau of Investigation decided to launch investigation into these.
The CBI had on Monday registered three FIRs to probe alleged irregularities in purchase and lease of aircraft by the two airliners, and surrender of profitable routes by them to favour domestic and foreign carriers.
Besides, it had also registered a preliminary enquiry (PE) to probe the controversial merger. Patel said the CBI had registered the PE to go into these issues in 2013 when the United Progressive Alliance was in power.
Asserting that 'all decisions were multi-tiered and collective', he said 'the aircraft purchase order was cleared by an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) headed by P Chidambaram and the merger was cleared by an EGoM headed by Pranab Mukherjee'.
"Both the decisions were ratified by the Cabinet," the Nationalist Communist Party leader said.
The CBI's action followed the Supreme Court's January 5 direction on a petition filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation led by lawyer Prashant Bhushan.
The process for the merger was initiated by Patel on March 16, 2006 when he had sought a concept paper on the merger.
A presentation was made before the Prime Minister on March 22 that year. An Empowered Group of Ministers had later examined the proposal.
The merger proposal had received the Manmohan Singh cabinet's approval on March 1, 2007.
Indian Airlines officially merged with Air India in April 2007.
The Comptroller and Auditor General had in 2011 questioned the rationale behind the government's decision to order 111 airplanes for AI and Indian Airlines--48 from Airbus and 68 from Boeing-- for about Rs 70,000 crore in 2006.
The government auditor had called the merger of the two national carriers 'ill-timed' and said, 'the financial case for the merger was not adequately validated prior to the merger'. -- PTI
The CBI had on Monday registered three FIRs to probe alleged irregularities in purchase and lease of aircraft by the two airliners, and surrender of profitable routes by them to favour domestic and foreign carriers.
Besides, it had also registered a preliminary enquiry (PE) to probe the controversial merger. Patel said the CBI had registered the PE to go into these issues in 2013 when the United Progressive Alliance was in power.
Asserting that 'all decisions were multi-tiered and collective', he said 'the aircraft purchase order was cleared by an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) headed by P Chidambaram and the merger was cleared by an EGoM headed by Pranab Mukherjee'.
"Both the decisions were ratified by the Cabinet," the Nationalist Communist Party leader said.
The CBI's action followed the Supreme Court's January 5 direction on a petition filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation led by lawyer Prashant Bhushan.
The process for the merger was initiated by Patel on March 16, 2006 when he had sought a concept paper on the merger.
A presentation was made before the Prime Minister on March 22 that year. An Empowered Group of Ministers had later examined the proposal.
The merger proposal had received the Manmohan Singh cabinet's approval on March 1, 2007.
Indian Airlines officially merged with Air India in April 2007.
The Comptroller and Auditor General had in 2011 questioned the rationale behind the government's decision to order 111 airplanes for AI and Indian Airlines--48 from Airbus and 68 from Boeing-- for about Rs 70,000 crore in 2006.
The government auditor had called the merger of the two national carriers 'ill-timed' and said, 'the financial case for the merger was not adequately validated prior to the merger'. -- PTI
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