Police take over India airports as strike bites
Reuters, New Delhi
Police took over much of the running of the country's two main airports yesterday as striking workers protested for a second day over threatened job cuts because of privatisation. Garbage bins were overflowing, toilets were left uncleaned and passengers had to walk to terminals in the capital after protestors blockaded the main road to New Delhi airport. Authorities advised passengers to travel light and arrive early for flights. India, Asia's third-largest economy, has embarked on a drive to modernise and revamp its Soviet-era airports in New Delhi, the capital, and Mumbai, the financial hub. But the move has angered workers and nearly 23,000 members of the state-run Airports Authority of India have declared an indefinite strike over the move to rope in private companies to takeover and modernise the shabby, run-down airports. In Mumbai, the financial hub, the airport was strewn with litter, and in Kolkata, baggage handling came to a standstill with airline staff helping passengers disembark. But flights, with minor delays, were still operating. "We're going to intensify our agitation until the government relents," Nitin Jadhav, general secretary of Airports Authority Employees Union in Mumbai told Reuters. "It is the question of the lives of thousands of airport employees and their families."
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Indian airport authority employees shout slogans outside the airport in New Delhi as thousands of workers picketed airports across India during strike protesting government plans to privatise the country's two largest landing facilities at New Delhi and Mumbai. PHOTO: AFP |
