Government acts against flying schools after reports of fraud in media

The government yesterday launched action against several flying schools in the country, after reports of a fraud against them, four days ago.  Three officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), including the number two of the aviation regulator have also been suspended.

The report, which appeared in THe Times of india, based on a detailed Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) investigation, said that undue privileges granted to 28 flying schools caused a Rs190-crore drain to the national exchequer.

The paper cited an unnamed official as saying that civil aviation minister Ajit Singh yesterday ordered the suspension of three DGCA officials, including joint DG A K Saran.

After reviewing the case which goes back to 2007 and which was being probed by the CVC, Singh ordered suspension of Saran (who was then deputy DG) and two junior officials, Parveen Kumar and D S Sada. Action has also been ordered by Singh, if rules permitted, against retired officer Deepak Raina who at the time was the head of the department handling flying schools.

According to the official, the minister had also asked the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to recover Rs190 crore from these flying clubs.

The CVC probe revealed that the flying clubs had posed as registered societies, claiming to operate on a no-profit no-loss basis, to avoid payment of full fees for operations to the government. The clubs claimed to  be registered educational societies, which qualified them to pay only nominal fee of just 10 per cent, including parking fee, land charges, etc.