IAF blamed for ferrying staff in AN-32
The IAF should only take senior officers in the aircraft.
Visakhapatnam: The All India Defence Employees Federation (AIDEF) on Sunday alleged that Indian Air Force (IAF) authorities have been violating norms by ferrying the Naval Armament Depot (NAD) civilian employees in their aircraft.
Talking to the media, general secretary of AIDEF, C. Srikumar said that the safety of NAD civilian employees seems to be danger as IAF have been filling civilian personnel in the military courier transport aircraft by violating the norms citing emergency and other reasons.
The IAF should only take senior officers in the aircraft, while other employees are supposed to travel in ships or flights after the authorities pay the travelling charges. This is the rule to be followed but since the last two years, NAD staffers have been travelling on aircrafts during emergency.
Eight persons among the 29 on board the IAF's transport plane AN-32 which went missing on its way from Chennai to Port Blair on July 22 were Vizag NAD civilian personnel. If IAF continues its unlawful activities, the safety of civilian employees is in a risk, he added.
Civilians should not be taken on aircraft for any operations. However, the employees are being taken in aircraft to Port Blair during emergencies. If the staffers express their fear that they could not travel in aircrafts, they are being threatened by the senior officers, members of AIDEF pointed out.
Retired Employees Union President of Naval Dockyard and District vice-president AITUC S.M. Moula Ali said that in case of untoward incident the officers will receive Rs 50 lakh insurance, an ex-gratia of Rs 25lakh and other benefits. But when it comes to normal civilians, they will get Rs 1.2 lakh as group insurance, Rs 10 lakh as compensation.
The families of the deceased persons, who were charred to death in the NAD fire mishap, are yet to receive any compensation due to the apathy of the NAD authorities, he added.