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- By Parinda News Bureau, February 02, 2006, 09:52 IST
Mumbai: Police resorted to lathi charge to disperse striking employees of Airports Authority of India in Mumbai, who were participating in a nation wide strike in protest against privatization of Mumbai and Delhi airports.
Barring Mumbai, where police resorted to lathicharge to disperse a group of striking Union employees who were staging a sit-in, there were no reports of any untoward incident.
AAI workers staged demonstrations and raised anti-government and anti-Sonia Gandhi slogans outside ariports but did not block the movement of the travellers.
"No disruption or delay in flight operations have been reported so far. We all are ensuring smooth functioning of the services," AAI spokesperson Premnath said.
Cabinet approves Delhi, Mumbai airport revamp plan.
The Union Cabinet has approved the selection of GMR-Fraport and GVK-South African Airports consortia for the modernization of Delhi and Mumbai airports.
"The Cabinet has accorded its approval to the report of empowered Group of Ministers on Delhi and Mumbai modernization and restructuring plan," Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said after the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The eGoM, headed by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, had on Tuesday cleared the financial bids of GMR-Fraport and GVK-South African Airports consortia for the Rs 5,400 crore metro airport modernization projects.
"The final approval has been given. The process will now move on," Patel said.
All in-coming and out-going flights operated on schedule in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and other cities with the agitating workers saying that they would continue with the protest till the Government rolled back its decision to hand over the modernization process of the Delhi and Mumbai airports - AAI's major revenue earners - to private consortia.
Though Air Traffic Controllers are not on strike, the ATC guild has expressed solidarity with the agitating workers.
In Guwahati, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Imphal, Dimapur AAI employees did not join the strike, while union spokesmen in Hyderabad, Guwahati and Bhubaneswar said they would chalk out their line of action after talks with leaders in regional hubs.
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