Water seeps from the ceiling owing to tanks on the rooftop; the decades-old distemper has come off most walls; cement awnings have given way to expose the girder frames. Even so, Air India claims to have spent about Rs 3.91 crore on the flats in Vasant Vihar (near Vasant Continental) in 2010-11. While details of the expenditure in the current financial year are not available, senior Air India officials claim renovation of the colony is in full swing. According to them, contractors have been hired. It is another matter that the residents haven't seen any labourers apart from those engaged by them.
The occupants wrote a letter to the chief vigilance commissioner in November last year, requesting him to look into the alleged financial bungling in maintenance of the airline's highest quarters. They have also written to the President, Prime Minister and the civil aviation minister several times, attaching the replies of RTI queries filed by them (TOI has the copies). A Ganeshamurthi, an MP, recently wrote to the minister, seeking his intervention.
In a letter dated February 4, 2014, Ajit Singh, the current civil aviation minister, told Ganeshmurthi: "The matter has been examined by the chief vigilance officer (CVO), Air India Limited. In his report, the CVO has informed that a committee, comprising three senior officers of Air India staying in the colony in Vasant Vihar, had been formed on September 11, 2013 to coordinate security and the overall discipline in the colony." The letter, however, doesn't mention the findings of the report, and only says the tenders for maintenance work have been floated.
In the colony, 646 flats are occupied by officials of the erstwhile Indian Airlines, while 164 are in possession of Air India employees. An RTI query reveals Rs 60,000 had been allocated for each Indian Airlines flat, while Rs 5,000 was set aside for an Air India flat in 2010-11. Residents, however, claim no work has been done on their flats and that they are paying from their own pockets.
Air India, which did not respond to TOI's questions despite several attempts to reach them, also remained silent on several queries made by the applicant of the RTI, which sheds light on the amount spent on 'renovation'. When asked about budget allocation and spending from 2004 to 2010-11, Air India could only provide details from 2007-08, as the previous data was "not available".
"There has been no repair work in the colony for at least seven years. In addition, no RWA was formed for years. Decisions were taken by a few individuals who had appointed two contractors on paper. Contractors had to carry out repairs and renovate the flats by turns. We are officials of a respected company living with our families and this is the condition," said an Air India official. A source, who didn't want to be identified, hints at large-scale misuse of funds.
Air India has a similar housing colony in Mumbai. Sources say work was being conducted there in transparent way, while the goings-on in the Delhi quarters are apparently shrouded in secrecy. "We have an internal website—webmail.airindia.in—which has all the details about the official quarters. While information on Mumbai flats is up to date, the Delhi data is not. There is something amiss, and despite several letters to all the authorities, everyone's turned a blind eye," said the source.
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