New Delhi: A prompt minister has unearthed an anomaly that Air India authorities "overlooked" for years. Minister of state for civil aviation K.C. Venugopal, while flying on an Air India flight , detected a ticket scam and virtually busted it singlehandedly.
Venugopal was travelling to Kochi on a Delhi-Kochi-Thiruvananthapuram flight on January 4. The minister noticed as many as 23 vacant seats on the flight. Suspecting something amiss , he asked for the passenger manifest but the crew failed to produce one.
Venugopal then instructed his office to file a formal complaint with the chairman and managing director of the airline, Rohit Nandan, and it did so promptly.
Air India launched an inquiry into the complaint and by January 10, two officers from customer service - Kalyani Atre and Marie Bernascone - were suspended from duty.
Interestingly, the Air India Employees' Guild has not asked for the revocation of the suspension of the two officers, but complained to the labour commissioner to go deep into the racket as it suspects the involvement of top officials of the airline in the malpractice.
14/01/13 India Today
