New Delhi:
The Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Prime Minister's office have started looking for a replacement for Arvind Jadhav, the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Air India, sources have told NDTV. Sources say 5 officers including Petro-chemicals secy K Jose Cyriac, Cochin Airport CEO Kurien and a high ranking official in the aviation ministry were short listed. However, all of them have declined to accept the offer.
Mr Jadhav has been under fire for his handling of the pilots strike.
Air India's 40,000 employees have not received their salary for June and July and performance linked incentives (PLI) from April to July. Currently, the airline is laden with a cumulative debt of Rs 40,000 crore it incurred over aircraft acquisition and as short-term loans to maintain its operations and posted losses around Rs 7,000 crore for the last fiscal.
Just last week, Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) report on Air India slammed the airline's management for a lack of foresight and said the decision to buy new aircraft caused a loss of Rs 200 crore.
A day later, former aviation minister and BJP MP Rajiv Pratap Rudy questioned the appointment of Mr Jadhav as the CMD of Air India.
Rudy alleged, based on an RTI reply received from the Cabinet Secretariat, that Jadhav- who became Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Air India in April 2009- was selected by the Search Committee despite having no "domain experience". He said the PMO has "manipulatively subverted" the selection process to benefit Mr Jadhav and asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to clear the air on the issue.