Mid-Day; Bipin Kumar Singh;
Air India threatens to quash retirement gains of former employee for exposing discrepancies
Pradeep Khanna (55), a former senior flight purser with Indian Airlines (now Air India), who exposed irregularities in the airline's golden handshake scheme, has peeved the state-owned carrier just enough to resort to retribution.
The airline has threatened to scrap his retirement benefits, as his expos © has besmirched "the company's image".
In a recent letter to Khanna, Air India has written, "You were explained repeatedly the reason for rejection of your application under VRRS 2007.
Despite this you have chosen to approach the press, misrepresenting the facts, thereby tarnishing the image of the company in the eyes of public.
This act of yours is viewed seriously. It is therefore proposed to withhold the benefits that are being given to you as a retired employee."
The golden handshake was a voluntary rejuvenation/rehabilitation scheme (VRRS) introduced in 2007 for AI employees.
They were paid Rs 25 lakh, excluding benefits, to take voluntary retirement.
MiD DAY had earlier reported on Khanna's revelatory RTI applications ("Did minister's wife net perks?" May 17, 2010).
But despite the airline's reprisal, Khanna says he will not yield ground. "Why should I bow down to a company which dishonestly distributed the scheme?
I have filed a complaint with the public grievances commission and the office of the president of India," said Khanna.
The RTI pleas
December 2009: Khanna had exposed the irregularities in Air India's golden handshake scheme through an RTI query. Following that, the vigilance department of Air India admitted that the scheme benefited even those who were not eligible for it (documents with MiD DAY). It had asked Air India to initiate action against officers responsible for the distribution under the scheme.
May 2010: In a second RTI query, Khanna asked Air India whether Neelam Pratap Singh, wife of ex- aviation minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy, was the sole beneficiary of this scheme.
AI surprised Khanna with its reply, saying that out of 18 applications 13 could not be approved under the scheme, three had been withdrawn by the applicants themselves, and one had expired, leaving Neelam as the only beneficiary.
The Other Side
According to an Air India spokesperson, "The company has already explained to Khanna why his VRRS application was rejected. But as I don't know anything about the letter issued to Khanna, I cannot make any comment without going through the details."
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