New Delhi, July
10:
Mr E. K. Bharat
Bhushan has been removed as the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation.
In a late
afternoon development, the Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Mr
Prashant Sukul, was asked to take over as the DGCA, holding additional charge.
Last week, the
Appointments Committee of the Cabinet had approved the extension of additional
charge for Mr Bhushan for one year from December 2011 or till the appointment
of a regular incumbent. The Ministry was also directed to fill up the post
within this period.
Mr Bhushan, a
1979 batch IAS officer from the Kerala cadre, will now move back to the
Ministry of Civil Aviation as Additional Secretary. Mr Bhushan, who assumed
charge in December 2010, is believed to have ruffled feathers in the domestic
industry by his tough stance on forcing airlines to lower fares and seeking a
comprehensive audit of their finances and safety norms.
The removal of
Mr Bhushan comes hardly a day after the DGCA is believed to have issued orders
that either debt-ridden Kingfisher Airlines pay its employees their past wages
in the next 15 days or shut operations.
On Tuesday,
Kingfisher flights operated with ATR aircraft were disrupted with pilots
refusing to fly until their back wages were paid. The airline is said to have
not paid its employees wages since February. Kingfisher Airlines had submitted
several turnaround plans to the DGCA but was unable to stick to any of them,
sources said.
This is the
second time that Mr Bhushan has been removed from his post. In 2009, he was
given temporary charge as CMD of Air India for a few days before Mr Arvind
Jadhav was appointed.
No comments:
Post a Comment