New Delhi: Against the backdrop of pilots
faking documents to get flying licences, a parliamentary
committee has slammed the Civil Aviation Ministry and the
Directorate General of Civil Aviation for a "very weak"
in-house supervisory and vigilance system to check the menace.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, which
also covers civil aviation, has recommended creation of a
separate body for keeping a strict vigil "so that such
instances do not recur at all."
The Sitaram Yechuri-led Committee also expressed
"surprise" that the Directorate of Licensing responsible for
issuing licenses to airline pilots was working with just four
Group A officers against the sanctioned strength of 26
officers.
The Civil Aviation Ministry did not accept the charges of
corruption when the issue was placed before it by the
Committee.
"The Committee finds that the recent instances of
corruption being reported in the media about issuance of
licenses to pilots on the basis of fake documents, without
clearing requisite tests, amply proves the existence of
criminal connivance between the officers of the DGCA, flight
training institutes and flight instructors with touts.
"That such a thing was going on within the DGCA shows that
its in-house supervisory and vigilance system was very weak,"
the report said.
The Committee has recommended that the entire licensing
system of DGCA needed streamlining. It said the system should
also be made transparent by making it available in the public
domain.
"The corruption of all forms should be eliminated from the
functioning of DGCA and its various offices. There should be a
separate body - either a directorate in DGCA or an outside
agency - for keeping strict vigil in this regard so that such
instances do not recur," the report said.
A total of 15 people, including five pilots and three DGCA
officials, have been arrested in Delhi and Jaipur since March
seven after the fake pilot scam was unearthed by the DGCA.
They were arrested on charges of using forged mark-sheets,
fudged flying hours and related documents to procure flying
licenses from the DGCA.
PTI
