MUMBAI, Jan 31: Flights across the country were delayed by as much as three hours in some cases as the Air Traffic Controllers' (ATCs) strike entered its second day today. While the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has yet to call in the Air Force to help out, AAI chief Ranjan Chatterjee said he has written to the Delhi Police, asking them to invoke the Essential Services Maintenance Act.Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) began their agitation from Friday night, by not allowing departures of any flights between 0000 and 0100 hours, 0600 and 0700 hours, 1000 and 1100 hours and 1500 to 1600 hours, to press for a settlement of long-pending issues.In Mumbai, a Kuwait Airlines flight was called back from take-off point at international terminal early today while at Juhu airport, an Ahmednagar-bound helicopter carrying Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister, Gopinath Munde, was not allowed to take off for 40 minutes.Flight schedules in Mumbai were disrupted with many flights taking off 15 minutes to one hourlate.An Indian Airlines spokesman said the morning flights took off from Mumbai 30 minutes late, especially between 6 am and 7 am and 10 am to 11 am. ``More than 12-13 flights of Indian Airlines were delayed due to the strike,'' he said, adding that as a chain reaction to the morning delay, flights schedules for the entire day went haywire.Outgoing flights of Air India were also delayed though the landing and overflights of aircrafts were not affected. Jet Airways, which had re-scheduled its flights pre-empting the ATC strike, also faced a problem as its Cochin-bound aircraft was unable to take off pending ATC clearance during 3 pm to 4 pm.Flights taking off from Chennai were delayed by between 20 minutes to an hour, while around 30 flights from Delhi were delayed. A United Airlines flight to London was an hour and twenty minutes late. The Indian Airlines flight to Bangalore topped the list, being three hours late.Frustrated and helpless passengers at the Sahar and Santacruz air terminals inMumbai were impatient to know the rescheduled flight timings. This is for the third time in the last one year when the ATCs have resorted to agitation to press for their demands. An airline passenger commented: ``We are at the mercy of a handful of controllers who are holding the whole country to ransom''.Yet another passenger said that the Indian government should repeat what US president Ronald Reagan has done when he sacked more than 3,000 ATCs and subsituted them with air force ATCs. ``The striking ATCs were never taken back and the same should be done here in India to discipline ATCs,'' he said.Although AAI has made it clear that it cannot yield to the demands of the ATCs, it is still keen on a negotiated settlement with them. The Member (Operations), Robey Lal, also pointed out that the agitation was in direct violation of the November 19 agreement between the ATCOs and the AAI, under which the ATCs had agreed not to resort to any industrial action in future.After the November strike of theATCOs, AAI had granted them all their financial demands, giving them hikes ranging between Rs 2000 and Rs 9000, taking the average salaries to between Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000.This time the ATCOs are demanding that most of the top posts in the board should go to them, suggesting even that the AAI chairman should be drawn from the ATCos because of their technical knowledge.The AAI has rejected the demand because the ATC is only one of the operations of the AAI which is responsible for airport security, communiation, co-ordination, surveillance and general airport operations. Besides, the ATCs form only 5 per cent of the total workforce of the AAI and do not justify such a mojor representation at the top level.The ATCs are also demanding a children's education allowance, an enhanced petrol allowance and a separate set of uniforms. As it is, the ATCs earn more than all other sections of the AAI given the critical nature of their operations, including, in some cases, the executive directors and themembers of the board.However, regional secretary of the ATC guild, P N Bahuguna, said the partial strike will continue till all their demands were met. ``If the ESMA is invoked and any action is taken against ATCs anywhere in India, then we will go on a complete strike. We do not want any confrontation with the government, but if they force us, then air services in the entire country would collapse,'' he threatened.The ATCs are of the opinion that they have no other choice left, but to resort to agitation as the AAI has failed to settle the demands as assured in November last.The Julkha committee recommendations has only been accepted in part and not in toto, Bahuguna pointed out.
