New Delhi, March 22 : Mahua Moitra of the TMC on Tuesday said that the Civil Aviation Ministry needs to be disbanded after privatisation of Air India and it needs to be merged with the transport ministry. Speaking on the demand for grants for the civil aviation ministry in the Lok Sabha, Mitra said that except for India and Bangladesh every other country has privatised their airlines and merged the ministry with the main transport ministry. Sher termed the privatisation of Air India “a fait accompli” and said she hoped that the rules and processes for it are put in place. She said the costs of Air India had mounted to Rs 120,000 crore in 10 yeas due to “gross mismanagement”. Pointing out that only Rs 1,240 crores has been allocated to the ministry, she asked “Why do we need a separate ministry of civil aviation?” “We are no longer running a national airline, so why have the ministry there, why not merge it with the shipping and road transport ministry,” she added. She said that the CISF, that is under the Ministry of Home Affairs, looks after the airport security, and the budget for the regional connectivity scheme (RCS) Udan has been reduced by 60 percent. She quoted the standing committee report to say that private players are not willing to fly on the regional connectivity Udan routes. “Let us do away with the ministry and let’s make life easy for the private players,” she said. She also demanded that the central taxes on Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) be reduced and to boost domestic capacity of MRO – Maintenance, Repair and Operations. She said because the domestic MRO is very insufficient all repair works are done abroad. Mitra also said the tendency of the Modi government to keep inaugurating airports should be curtailed and instead the capacity of the existing ones be boosted, and also fill up the shortfall in personnel needed to run airports to boost air safety. DMK’s SR Parthiban, from Salem, said that the airport and parking fees have gone up and there are no facilities for the elderly and physically challenged persons at airports. Parthiban said there is a shortage of trained personnel and more than 28,000 pilots would be needed in the coming days. On maintenance, he said that only 5 percent is spent on MRO, and the rest of the work for maintenance and repair is outsourced. “What happened to Make in India?” he asked. He also urged for resuming air services to Salem airport. The DMK member alleged that the Modi government is providing billions for projects in BJP ruled states and ignoring Tamil Nadu. Hasnain Masoodi of the J&K National Conference demanded more regional connectivity schemes for J&K, and suggested that Pahalgam could be brought under the Udan scheme as it would help reduce the pressure on Srinagar airport. Abdussamad Samadani of the IUML from Malappuram said that a proper public grievance redressal system needs to be put in place, and airports need to be made more passenger friendly. He said Calicut airport needs more international and domestic flights. He also said that from April 1 the users’ fee will be increased at airports in the country, and requested that this fee be withdrawn forever. RN