Bird scarers at airport must ‘fly out’ of runway

Chennai: For the 44 ‘bird scarers’, who ensure that the feathered friends stay off the airport runways by bursting crackers and chasing the winged visitors away, the future looks bleak thanks to a recent decision of the the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to not have any of them on the runways. The jobs of many of them, like 35-year-old Selvam (name changed), who have been working at the airport since 1995, might fly out of their hands.
Recently, while issuing fresh tenders calling for contracts, AAI made it a condition that none of those working at the airport at present can be engaged for the job. The AAI was peeved with the present set of bird scarers, who were employed by a private contractor, as they had gone to court demanding that they be made regular employees.
Though the bird scarers lost their case in the court, AAI does not want to take any more risks in this regard.
“We have been working here, bursting crackers to scare away the birds, for almost 10 years now and that is what we do. We have every right to be an AAI employee,” said Selvam whose six-hour shift just required him to scare away birds.
10/09/10 ExpressBuzz

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Categories: airports Sep 2010, Safety Sep 2010