Trivedi also said the airline has made operational profits and that the problem lay in the airlines’ management. He also said that Air India flights were running to capacity, but that all the most lucrative routes had been handed over to the private airlines instead of the national carrier. “I compare Air India with the AIIMS,” Trivedi said adding that the premier health institution was bogged down by huge number of patients.
Noting that Air India has stood the test of time, Trivedi also said the airline has served the country well, evacuating Indians in times of need, and being the preferred carrier for the country’s Prime Minister.
On Friday, CPI(M) MP MB Rajesh also urged the government to re-consider its decision of strategic disinvestment in the state-owned Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) and said the move would be like killing the goose that gives golden eggs. Rajesh said BEML had contributed around Rs 6,500 crore in taxes and dividends to the government in the last ten years, and that privatisation of the unit would mean handing over a Rs 50,000 crore asset to private players.
Zero Hour on Friday also saw Congress MP KC Venugopal bat for Kerala’s athlete P U Chitra, who has been denied permission to participate in the World Athletics Championships in London next month. He urged the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) to urgently look into the matter. Parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar assured to convey the althete’s concern to the sports and youth affairs minister.
RSP MP NK Premchandran also raised the issue of medal winners in the Turkey Deaflympics 2017, who were not received or felicitated by the Athletics Association upon their return to India. Premachandran sought a reply from the government on the “discrimination against successful participants in the paralympics and the deaflympics.” While gold medal winners of Paralympic are given Rs 75 lakh by the government, gold medallists in the Deaflympics are given only Rs 15 lakh.
Source : timesofindia
