gfiles magazine accuses systemic and widespread corruption in Indian aviation

gfiles magazine has written a two part article accusing India's Civil Aviation Minister and other officials of systemic corruption with the ulterior motive of running Air India in to the ground.

As the magazine puts it

gfiles prayerfully brings to the Supreme Court’s attention, in two parts, the inside story of how a national resource – as well as a powerful symbol of modern Indian ingenuity and enterprise in the public sector – has been systematically emasculated in order to pave the way for vested interests to dominate a vital segment of the Indian economy. In addition, we also document how, as part of a larger conspiracy, prime land worth Rs 98,000 crore belonging to the Government of India was gifted for profit to a consortium of vested interests in the name of “airport development”

read the full story here.

In the second article, the magazine goes on to accuse the Minister and ministry officials of a Rs. 98,000 Crore land scam.

On the surface, these appear innocuous, unrelated figures: Cost of land at Mumbai and Delhi airports at market value – Rs 98,000 crore; cost of construction of new airports at Mumbai and Delhi – Rs 14,300 crore. But, placed under the microscopic scrutiny of investigative reporting, these numbers bespeak a horror story of how the Ministry of Civil Aviation under Mr Praful Patel brazenly gifted India’s most expensive public real estate to private consortiums under the government’s so-called “airport modernization” programme

Read the second story here.