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Journalism of Courage
With three of its members on extension and the acting Chairman unsure whether he would occupy the same chair on Thursday, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is virtually on a life-support system these days.
On bi-monthly extensions since December 2001, acting Chairman S K Narula’s last licence ends on Wednesday and he is yet to receive a new one from the Ministry of Civil Aviation. A delay by a day could mean that the organisation goes without a Chairman and Narula returns to his other charge of Member (Personnel) on the AAI Board.
However, CVC reminded Delhi High Court of certain departmental inquiries pending against him. The Court, in turn, directed the inquiries to be expedited and that no fresh appointment be made till then. While the Government could have appointed an acting Chairman for a longer duration, it chose to appoint Narula for two months on December 26, 2001 though he took over charge on January 14 2002. Since then, he has been surviving on bi-monthly extensions. Narula can, however, take solace from the fact that the Ministry recently granted him an extension as Member (Personnel) till he superannuates in January 2004.
The same cannot be said of the other two members, K Ramalingam and V D V Prasad Rao. While the former holds the dual charge of Member (Planning) and Member (Operations), the latter is the Member (Finance). Both these officials have completed their five-year tenure on the AAI Board last year. The word doing the rounds is that like Narula they too have been granted an extension till they superannuate. But the letters are yet to arrive and the two are presently drawing salary on a daily wage basis.
The net result is that there are now just three members — all of whom are on extension — on the five-member AAI Board.
Among them, one is the acting Chairman who is on tenterhooks every two months.
