Prosecute GMR and its cohorts
The recently published `CAG’ report confirmed,
despite that the government claims of transparency, it had pushed to the wall
with no ammunition to defend itself. It is an irony, that reeling under the
impact of several scams the dispensation leading by Dr. Manmohan Singh is
vitiated the sanctity of the highest office in our country. The role
of the `PMO’ in the coal block allocation is became the `mother of all scams’.
It is equally important that the infrastructure
development projects muted through public private partnership (PPP) mode is
also mired in similar controversy. There is no level playing field and
transparency either in these agreements or the execution of these projects. The
malpractices carried out by the private developer- the GMR owned DIAL – in the
name of developing the Delhi airport has also the blessing of our Prime
Minister with his passive attitude. The `PMO’, the Civil Aviation Ministry, and
the Delhi International Air Port Ltd. (DIAL) have actively colluded with the
developer (GMR) to amass an amazing quantum of wealth through numerable
conspiracies.
The Controller and Auditor General has
criticized development fee charged on passengers at the Indira Gandhi
International Airport. Allowing development fee of Rs 200 for domestic and Rs
1300 for international passenger gave `GMR’ an undue monetary benefit of Rs
3,415 crore. This levy has violated the bid conditions and it shows certain
recklessness to follow the original contract.
Whenever the operator has raised an issue of
extra revenue, to go to it or expenditure to be debited to government, the
Ministry and Airport Authority of India had always ruled in favour of the GMR
Corporation, and against the government interest, in contravention of the
Operation, Maintenance, and Development Agreement (OMDA). The Report
further says that, DIAL has the potential to earn Rs 1,63,557 crore over a 60
year period of time. The 2,799 acres of land leased out to GMR at Rs 100 a year
has just stood out an equity investment of Rs 2,450 crore. Five percent of this
land or 239.5 acres, allowed for commercial use, has current value of Rs 24,000
crore. This too was given to GMR as part of 4799 acres for lease of Rs 100 per
annum.
The `CAG’ points out that the joint venture
company, shall meet all its financial requirements through suitable debt and
equity contributions to comply with its obligations, including the development
of the airport. The Ministry’s order on February 9, 2009, to allowing the GMR
to levy a development fee for financing the upgrade, expansion or development
of the airport is sheer violation of the original agreement. This order
violated the provisions of Article 13.1 of the OMDA, the AAI Act and the
Airport Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) Act, later confirmed by the Delhi
High Court.
The levy of development fee was a post
contractual benefit given to the `GMR’, to bridging the funding gap was neither
envisaged in the request for the proposal (RFP) nor included in the provisions
of OMDA or the state support agreement. This led to an undue benefit of Rs
3,415 crore to the DIAL at the cost of passengers.
Another hilarious fact is that,
beyond all these government largesse’s Delhi Airport is remaining with the most
expensive and prohibitive airports in the world. The Airport charges are now
increasing to a level of 334 % for domestic carriers in one year, is magically
higher to 700 per cent. High airport charges are a serious problem that will
ultimately increase the passenger’s burden. The thing is that, the spiraling
charges in Delhi Airport had been most critical, and a result of these more
foreign airlines is postponing increasing their capacity in India. Another
funny thing is that in Delhi Airport the airlines are not only paying for
departing flights but also for arrivals. There is no airport in the world that
does this practice.
All these points raised by the CAG, and other
facts are pointing the loot carried out by the GMR Corporation. The PMO and the
Civil Aviation Ministry are equally responsible for this daylight looting. There
is an urgent need to revisit the way PPP projects were allotted in the country.
The aviation industry in our country has
suffered, a lot from the callous attitude of former Aviation Minister Mr.
Praful Patel. The cumbersome ideas carried out on the merger of Air India and
Indian Airlines have paved the way for the disastrous performance of our
national carrier. These puerile changes have gone to shepherding the carrier to
the mean streets of economic peril, and faces uncertain times ahead. The cancellation
of profitable routs for the benefit of private carriers has reaped immense
gains for the civil aviation authorities, and the minister himself. The very
happening in this industry need an urgent course correction with thorough
professionalism.
The Congress Secular Hindu Forum has demanding the
government of India, to strike a note of realism, and must be take all steps
immediately to take back the money illegally collected by the GMR, and recover
the huge wealth handed over the DIAL through illegal methods. To stop the
ongoing collection of user development fee with immediate effect and prosecute
the persons responsible for the loss to the exchequer through a thorough probe
by the CBI.
K. Ravi Kumar,
General Secretary –
Central Committee