20 cases of irregularities against DGCA officials since 09

Civil aviation regulator DGCA has  recommended 20 cases for disciplinary or criminal action against its officials for alleged involvement in various irregularities since 2009, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said today.

"The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had forwarded two cases in 2009, 13 in 2011 and five this year of the DGCA officials in which disciplinary or criminal action had been proposed against them for alleged irregularities.

"These cases have been examined in the Ministry in consultation with Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and disciplinary action has already been initiated in all the cases," Singh said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

The accused include officials holding senior ranks of Joint Director General, Deputy Director General, Director and Assistant Director.

Of the two cases in 2009, one was of remaining absent from duty while other was against a Controller of Airworthiness for granting approval to an non-scheduled operator by exercising the powers exceeding his jurisdiction.

There was no case for disciplinary action in 2010, Singh said, adding of the 13 cases in 2011, three were related to pilot licence approval on fake DGCA result card.

Seven cases were for permitting employment of member of family in the airline industry without prior permission of the government. In this, a Joint DG, two Directors, three Assistant Directors and a Junior Pilot were allegedly involved.

One was against a Deputy Director for allegedly misusing his official position for monetry gains and the case is with CBI. Others cases include those of showing undue favour towards a flying school and wrongful claim of HRA from the government.