Air-India gets embroiled in booking agents payment default scandal

Air-India once the much-vaunted showpiece of the public sector, has now developed an uncanny knack for embarrassing the ruling party at regular quarterly intervals, normally coinciding with the parliamentary sessions. Six months ago it was the Japan junket arranged by the airline for ministers, members of Parliament and government officials. Hardly had the hue and cry about the junket episode died down than the airline's employees went on a highly publicised strike which led to a renewed spate of mud-slinging both within the Lok Sabha and without.

This too was eventually overcome by Air-India's management, but its bag of troubles didn't stop here. The airline now finds itself embroiled once again in a public scandal. The recent controversy was sparked off by the disclosure that four of its booking agents had defaulted on payments totalling up to Rs 89.9 lakh. Coinciding with the meeting of Parliament, the disclosure promptly led to a calling-attention motion jointly tabled by members of both the ruling party and the Opposition, demanding that the minister explain why the corporation was "duped" and "cheated"

Although airline officials denied from the start that there was anything unusual about the doubtful debts run up by four agents in Manila, Teheran, Bombay and Baroda, the Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism, A.P. Sharma, admitted last fortnight that Air-India had in fact been defrauded by them. He stated, in the Rajya Sabha, that civil and criminal action had been initiated against the Philippine agent, Odyssey Corporation, Ajanta Travels of Iran, and Polaris of Baroda.