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AAI officials suspended for irregularities in Mangalore and other Airports

[email protected] (CD Network)
September 18, 2012

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Mangalore, September 18: Union Civil Aviation Ministry has ordered immediate suspension of six senior officers of Airports Authority of India (AAI) for committing serious irregularities and wrong doing at Mangalore Airport and several other airports of India.

A statement issued by ministry stated that Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh ordered immediate suspension and initiation of major penalty proceedings against AAI Executive Director(Commercial) LL Krishnan, DGM Finance RL Saran, Additional GM (Commercial) S Basu, DGM (Operations) Arun Mehan, DGM (Operations) PK Chadha and GM Ravi Verma.

The development comes after a CBI inquiry found them guilty of committing serious irregularities and wrong doing at various airports including Mangalore, Calicut, Chennai, Kolkata Trivandrum, Coimbatore and Tiruchi.

The CBI investigations had revealed that these officials favoured a particular company in award of contracts for ground handling services at certain airports.

The Minister also directed filing of the FIR Prem Bajaj, managing director, of Bhadra International, the suspect company, R. V. Narayanan, retired ED (Commercial), Ajit Kumar Dubey, retired ED (Finance), AAI and others for their acts of manipulation, forgery, criminal breach of trust, criminal conspiracy and corruption under Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Corruption Act. It has also been decided that action may be initiated against the company for cancellation of the award/contract and recovery of dues, the statement added.

Mr. Singh also directed AAI to take corrective measures to prevent participation of defaulter contractor/parties (even if the default is by their sister/ related concerns) in future tender processes by incorporating suitable provisions in the rules and regulations. Following complaints of irregularities in award of contract for ground handling services by the AAI, the CBI had conducted a preliminary enquiry. The enquiry into award of contract for ground handling services at Chennai and Kolkata airports found that the officers of the AAI made certain deviations from the Commercial Manual in the Notice Inviting Tender (NIT), the statement said.

The deviation in particular included deliberate incorporation of the term tie-up arrangement in the eligibility criteria as stipulated in the NIT to make Bhadra International India Ltd. eligible in joint venture technical agreement with Novia International Consulting APS for participating in the bid process. The justification by the officers that the deviation in the NIT had been made as improvements keeping in view similar tenders floated by DIAL and MIAL were found misleading in the inquiry as the NIT of DIAL and MIAL have not used terms as tie-up arrangement.

The enquiry further revealed that TDI International also owned by Mr. Bajaj, sister company of Bhadra International was having a huge outstanding of Rs.36 crores to AAI in an advertisement contract. Further, Mr. Narayanan, retired ED (Commercial) who was liable for drafting NIT joined Bhadra International India Ltd. as its vice president after retirement. Taking serious exception of this, the Minister directed AAI to suitably amend its service rules by incorporating provisions for seeking the permission by the retired employees to seek employment within a period of two years after retirement, it stated.

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News Network
June 17,2020

Mangaluru, Jun 17: The first chartered flight repatriating Indians stranded at Kuwait for months landed at the international airport here.

The Jazeera Airways flight privately booked by the Keralites and coastal Kannadigas living in the Arab country had left sometime in the afternoon with 160 passengers on board.

The flight also carried the mortal remains of Sathish Kochu Shetty (45), who died in a fire tragedy at a refinery in Kuwait on June 14.

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News Network
January 13,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 13: Though he submitted his resignation as leader of the opposition over a month ago, former chief minister Siddaramaiah continues as the face of the Congress in Karnataka.

However, this may change as All India Congress Committee (AICC) interim president Sonia Gandhi has summoned Siddaramaiah to Delhi for a final consultation over change of guard. Over the past month, there has been speculation over the possibility of Congress persisting with Siddaramaiah as opposition leader and either party troubleshooter DK Shivakumar or former ministers MB Patil, HK Patil or Eshwar Khandre replacing incumbent president Dinesh Gundu Rao. Both tendered resignations owing moral responsibility for the party's dismal performance in the 15 bypolls held last month.

In the past 24 hours, there has been talk of Siddaramaiah being asked to be the state unit president and vacating the other post for a young turk or experience legislator including the likes of Shivakumar who could be the face of KPCC by 2023 if he gets a clean chit from the ED in cases of money-laundering, etc. Seniors, including former KPCC president and DyCM G Parameswara and former minister HK Patil, are strong contenders to be leader of the opposition if Siddaramaiah is asked to vacate the post.

However, sources in the Siddaramaiah camp dismissed the possibility of him becoming KPCC president. "He has never aspired for the post and the high command is not inclined to do it," said a member in his camp.

Siddaramaiah may meet Sonia on Tuesday morning. It's still unclear if any other KPCC functionaries have been summoned. Sources said Sonia is scheduled to leave India for medical treatment on January 15 and wanted to complete the consultations about Karnataka. The high command has reportedly gone through reports submitted by party observers Madhusudan Mistry and Parameswara.

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News Network
April 16,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 16: Former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy had said that his son Nikhil's marriage ceremony will take place at bride Revati's residence in Bengaluru, however, the wedding preparations are also going on in his farmhouse at Ramnagar.

This comes amid the lockdown in the country due to COVID-19 outbreak. The farmhouse is located at Kethaganahally, near Bidadi in Ramnagar.

Kumaraswamy has said the marriage will be simple and only his family members will attend and no one from outside would be invited.

Earlier Kumaraswamy has said that his son's marriage will take place on April 17 at bride house.

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