Kingfisher Airlines has been issued a show-cause
notice as to why its licence should not be cancelled/suspended as it has failed
to establish a “safe, efficient and reliable service”.
The Directorate-General of Civil Aviation, which
issued the notice, has given the airline 15 days to reply. The Government
statement said that legal opinion was taken before sending the notice.
The airline has suspended all operations since
October 1 as employees struck work protesting non-payment of wages. The DGCA
show-cause came hours after the airline sent a statement that it has pushed
back its plans of resuming flights till October 12. At an October 2 meeting in
Delhi, the airline’s Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Aggarwal had said that
operations will resume by October 4-5.
‘Humanitarian’ Funds
The airline’s statement pushing back the start
of flights came after banks agreed to release Rs 60 crore so that it can pay
its employees.
Speaking to newspersons on Friday, SBI Chairman
Pratip Chaudhuri said that 80 per cent of the amount released by the tax
authorities will be given back to the airline by banks specifically for paying
salaries.
“Of the Rs 60 crore released by the tax
authorities which had impounded the money, we will release Rs 40 crore for
payment of salaries looking at the humanitarian crisis that non-payment of
salaries has caused. I don’t know how adequate that will be,” he said.
However, Chaudhuri ruled out giving further
loans to the carrier. “There are no assets to hypothecate. So there is no room
for more debt.”
The banks’ decision to release funds will come
too late for at least one family of the over 4,000 employees of the airline. On
Thursday, the wife of a Kingfisher staffer committed suicide blaming the
financial problems that the family was facing as her husband had not been paid
wages for the past five months.
Shocked at the incident, the employees in Delhi,
Mumbai and Bangalore held protests. In Delhi, employees of the airline
organised a candlelight rally.
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