Aviation Ministry has no information on AI privatisation

On June 28, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced that the Cabinet has given in-principle approval for Air India stake divestment.

The Civil Aviation ministry does not have any information on the proposed privatisation of Air India, an RTI reply has revealed.

The Right to Information application was filed by Nutan Thakur, a social activist. She had requested the ministry to provide documents related to Air India's proposed divestment, including those exchanged between the ministry and different offices.

Chandra Kishore Shukla, Under Secretary in the ministry, however, informed her that the information sought is not available with the ministry in any material form, hence it shall be treated as "Nil information".

Earlier on July 11, S.K. Bajaj, an Air India official, had also said in an RTI reply that the carrier has not made any communication with any other officers nor has it received any communication from any of the departments with respect to its proposed divestment.

Nutan Thakur told IANS that she found this strange. "It is strange that the concerned ministry and the company seem to be out of the loop in the process," she said.

On June 28, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced that the Cabinet has given in-principle approval for Air India stake divestment.

IANS