Whistle-blower says AAI violated rules to transfer her

The deputy general manager (aviation safety of western region) of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), S. Mangala, who is also a whistle-blower, has alleged that several AAI rules were violated when she was transferred to Kolkata earlier this month.

According to an AAI letter dated June 21, 2016, all transfers for the financial year 2016-17 had been completed and, henceforth, no transfers would take place for this year. Not only was this rule broken, but AAI’s transfer policy also states that the parent of a disabled child will be exempt from the routine exercise of transfer, and this point was violated as well. According to Ms Mangala, none of these rules were followed before her transfer orders were released. However, AAI chairperson Guruprasad Mohapatra said, “I have no comments to make on such things.”

Significantly, Ms Mangala, in 2014, had filed a petition in the high court against malpractices and corruption in AAI and safety rule violations at the Mumbai airport. AAI sources said that Ms Mangala received her transfer order dated September 12 on October 7, while she was on leave. AAI’s transfer orders typically give a person three weeks’ time to go to a new place, but Ms Mangala was directed to join immediately. Also, her transfer order mentioned that she was an official of aviation cadre when she is actually an air traffic control (ATC) cadre. Sources further informed this newspaper that while transfer lists were made available on the AAI website, the authorities never bothered to put Ms Mangala’s transfer information on their portal.

When The Asian Age accessed AAI’s transfer orders, it discovered that on a letter dated June 21 this year, the general manager of the air traffic management (ATM) department had announced that all reviews of employees under ATM and ATC cadres had been done and with the final list released on June 16, the authorities concluded the transfer session for the year 2016-17.

Further, the AAI transfer policy, to which this newspaper has access, clearly mentions that if the child of an AAI employee is suffering from any physical or mental disability, parents cannot be transferred midway through the child’s academic year. Ms Mangala’s daughter suffers from a learning disability and is a student of class X.

When contacted, Ms Mangala told this newspaper, “On August 10, 2016, the Bombay high court had directed the civil aviation ministry to conduct inquiries into the air safety issues which I have brought to the fore. I have a few important original files in my custody which I fear my seniors in AAI want to get access to and destroy to weaken the enquiry.”