New Delhi

Amidst stiff opposition from the Airport Authority of India(AAI) employees’ union, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju today stood firm on the airports privatisation move and said that the government was going to do whatever was in the interest of the country.

“Those who want to oppose will oppose and those who want to support will support… you do what is in the interest of the country,” Raju said in response to questions on whether the government would do a rethink on its privatisation policy in the wake of the Airports Authority Employees Union (AAEU)’s opposition to the move.

Speaking to reporters here, the minister also said that he would like to see the “details,” if AAEU would share them, backing the union’s allegations that if the government goes ahead with the plan, it would be the “first inevitable scam” of the Narendra Modi-led NDA Government at the Centre.

“If it is a scam, I would like to see the details of the scam… how it has happened… the modus operandi. My job is to stamp out scam,” Raju told reporters on the sidelines of the seminar, ‘Transforming Indian Airports into International Cargo Hubs’, organised by the Air Cargo Forum India.

Thousands of AAI employees yesterday held demonstrations at airports across the country against the move and also threatened to impose a shutdown to press their demand for the process to be stalled.

AAEU General Secretary Balraj Singh Ahlawat, who led the protest at the AAI headquarters, has claimed that if the government were to hand over its airports to the corporates, it would be the first “inevitable scam” of the Modi dispensation.

AAI had last month invited Request For Qualification (RFQ) from domestic and overseas private players to hand over the management, operation and development of the Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur and Ahmedabad airports, in which it has already invested Rs 5,000 crore.

Nine private firms, including the Tata and Adani groups, have shown interest in operating, managing and developing these airports. Other interested players include GMR, GVK, Essel, Siemens, Flemingo, IBDF Zurich and Cochin International Airport, official sources had said yesterday.

Meanwhile, responding to a question on the low-fares war being waged by the domestic airlines, Raju said that the decision to determine pricing should be left with the carriers.

The Minister said that air fares worldwide are not a regulated market, and added that, “as of now, airlines choose fares… our regulation is not about putting caps and floors. There are implications of floor and caps.”

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