Air India Strike: A bureaucrat victim comes out with an innovative formula

GUESS who are the silent sufferers of the Air India mess arising out of the pilot strike? Incidentally, the bureaucrats who by rulebooks must fly the national carrier for official assignments and LTA, are now a frustrating lot. There are uncertainties around, and for some, summer holidays are at stake! You could be a powerful babu, but you are constrained to air your genuine concerns through a TV channel. But here is an IAS officer who has suggested an innovative formula of how to allow a government officer to fly other than Air India. Here it is:
“Stipulation for Govt Officers to fly Air India only violates GFR! It should be cheapest available like L1 for any tender process!” suggests 1995 batch IAS officer Abhishek Singh in Twitter. And why not? FM should be happy that it would rather save some money for the government!

It was however a personal view of Singh who was a mechanical engineer from IIT-Kanpur before joining IAS, and is currently working as a director in communications and IT ministry.

In fact, this Nagaland cadre IAS who also worked in UP on deputation was perturbed by cancellation hazards. A few days before he came out with the suggestion of allowing babus to fly by the cheapest available airline rather than Air India, he had tweeted: “Phew!! On line with #AirIndia call center for 30 minutes to cancel a ticket!! And I can’t do it online!! Thanks to Balmer Lawrie!!”. The recent pilot strike has caused the Airline a loss of about Rs 150 crore.

Singh’s outbursts are actually the voice of thousands of bureaucrats who suffer every time there is a strike in Air India. But unlike other passengers who express their anger in front of TV cameras, the babus end up sharing their sufferings only to family and friends.

If you have any story to tell about your miseries in Air India post strike or earlier, you can post your comments below. You can also write to us at feedback@babusofindia.com

You can ask us not to mention your name, but mail us the real case study.

 Action and Appointments

a) Amitabh Kant, a 1980 batch IAS and CEO of DMICDC, spoke about private-public partnership in infrastructure creation at Mussoorie academy. Spoke to service IAS officers.

b) Ms Usha Sharma, a 1985 batch Rajasthan cadre IAS, presently in the cadre has been appointed as Additional Director General (Tourism) at the joint secretary level, in place of Devesh Chaturvedi, a 1989 batch UP cadre IAS.