Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: The Airports Authority Employees Union (AAEU) has called for a nationwide strike on March 11 to protest against the privatisation of airports by the government.
Opposing the government's move to privatised airports, the AAEU had earlier in January threatened to renew their agitation if the Centre went ahead with the move.
Earlier, in a letter to Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju recently, the AAEU had alleged that the decision to privatise the development, operations and management of four more airports - Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur and Ahmedabad - violates the Tripartite Committee recommendations, which have already been accepted by the government long back.
The copies of the letter have also been marked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister, AAI chairman, Chief Labour Commissioner and the Parliamentary panel for Transport, Culture and Tourism.
"If the government does not give us a proper hearing, we shall be constrained to take to recourse to industrial action and call for a general strike in AAI," the union said in the letter.
The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has also opposed the government's move to privatised the aiports and hand over management of vital infrastructure like airports to private corporates.
Calling upon all the trade unions to come together and resist the move, the CITU in a statement had said it “strongly opposes the retrograde move of the Government to privatise vital revenue earning airports of the country".
The Narendra Modi-led NDA government wants to handover only those airports to the private firms which are high traffic and revenue airports and in which it has already invested Rs 5,000 crore public money, the statement claimed.
According to reports, nine private firms including Tata and Adani groups have shown interest in operating, managing and developing four state-run airports in the country.
With PTI Inputs
