Air India pilots getting Rs 8,000 per month

NEW DELHI: Pilots in the private sector are usually among the highest paid professionals in India. But executive pilots who are counted as part of Air India's management have, for the past few months, been taking home barely Rs 4,500-8,000 per month!

Not surprisingly, the `unwell' pilots who are on sick leave aren't keen to get well soon. Captain V K Bhalla, who is spearheading the agitation in Delhi, said: ``AI's management must pay our past three months' dues and roll back the Talibani cut in salaries. Only then will we report for work. We pilots are getting pittance as allowances and performance-linked incentives are not being paid. I have got Rs 6,000 so far this month. Last month, till August 22, I had got Rs 8,000 and then some allowances. It's not just me, most IA pilots (who were with Indian Airlines before the merger with AI) are getting a pittance. On top of that, they also want to cut the performance-based incentive of not just this month, but also the last two months.''

Another senior pilot said he has been getting Rs 4,600 for the past three months while his earlier take home was Rs 2-2.5 lakh. Despite repeated attempts, AI spokesperson could not be reached for comment on this issue.

However, with the management showing little sign of relenting, the strike could be a long-drawn affair.

While maintaining that it won't bow down to striking pilots and that AI has to cut costs drastically to survive, a worried government has called an emergency meeting of all airlines on Tuesday. Aviation secretary M M Nambiar will meet private airlines to stress on two points -- they should not raise fares to cash in on the crisis and should accommodate AI passengers to ensure they are not left stranded when pilots call in sick.

On Sunday, Bhalla, who refused to attend the meeting between some executive pilots and the airline management in Mumbai, said that nobody from the management had got in touch with them over the issue and accordingly only a handful of pilots from Mumbai were present for the meeting. ``Our demand is simple. The management should pay us our dues and call off the cut that it has ordered. While it is paying foreign pilots almost $20,000 per month, are we to believe that it has no money to pay us less than a third of that, specially since we don't even need foreign pilots,'' he said.

On its part, top aviation ministry officials say AI and IA pilots' pay package is much higher than their private counterparts. ``We are going to take a harsh view of the strike as it is inconveniencing the public. It is also not helping the effort to get bailout money from the government and if that does not come, the airline will have to die,'' said a top official.

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Balco probe: 'Stay' order for 89 Chinese

NEW DELHI: The Centre has decided to restrain 89 Chinese nationals from leaving the country after the Balco incident, which left 41 workers dead.

The Chinese workers, who have been restrained from leaving India, are employed at the Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (Balco) thermal power plant at Korba in Chhattisgarh where an under-construction chimney collapsed, leading to these casualties on Wednesday. The death toll may rise further as the debris at the site is yet to be fully cleared.

Immigration authorities across the countries were alerted on Thursday as a number of Chinese employees had fled Korba fearing the ire of the locals in the wake of the rising toll. Officials at airports were asked not to allow these 89 Chinese engineers/workers to leave the country as their presence was needed during the probe into the incident.

Chhattisgarh police chief Vishwa Ranjan told TOI from Raipur that the immigration authorities were only asked to stop these Chinese engineers/workers from leaving India as they may be needed during the "technical inquiry" into the incident.

He said: "Preliminary inquiry doesn't point fingers at them (Chinese engineers/workers). They may assist the officials during the technical inquiry and therefore they have been asked to remain in India."

In the wake of the alert, four Chinese engineers -- on the basis of their passport details -- were stopped at IGIA airport here on Friday night and asked to report to the state police in Chhattisgarh. Eight other Chinese workers, including three women, were also stopped at Raipur and asked to give their statement to the Korba police about the incident.

These Chinese were reportedly employed by Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation (SEPCO), China. The company was awarded the engineering procurement and construction contract for the 1,200 MW project. It had, in turn, outsourced the chimney construction work to Delhi-based Gannon Dunkerley Company Limited (GDCL).

The police have, meanwhile, registered a case against Balco, SEPCO and GDCL. It is learnt that GDCL staff, too, fled Korba, fearing a backlash.

According to news agency reports from Raipur, 40 of the 41 bodies of the labourers have so far been identified. One of the victims belonged to Chhattisgarh while a majority of them were from neighbouring Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.