Current DGCA given another two-month service extension

New  Delhi: The services of India's current director general of civil aviation, Kanu Gohain, have been extended once again, this time by two months. The extension has been provided to facilitate the formal appointment of civil servant, Naseem Ahmad Zaidi to the post.

Zaidi is currently India's representative at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and is slated to step into Gohain's shoes as the next director general.

Though Zaidi's nomination has been cleared by the civil aviation ministry, it is yet to be cleared by the Appointments Committee of the Union Cabinet. The committee is expected to meet only over the next couple of weeks, official sources said.

Zaidi is an officer of joint secretary rank in the ministry of civil aviation. He is also an Uttar Pradesh cadre officer of the 1976 batch.

Gohain was to have superannuated last year, but has found his services being extended continuously as the government appears unable to pick a suitable successor.

His second-in-command, joint- director general, AK Chopra, does not fulfil an essential requirement of completing two years in his present post to be elevated to the top job. For that matter, neither does Zaidi meet all technical requirements for appointment, but his name has been cleared for appointment.

Zaidi is presently posted at the Montreal headquarters of the ICAO. The United Nations agency fixes rules, and sets standards for the civil aviation sector worldwide. Another joint secretary in the civil aviation ministry, RK Singh, was elected as chairman of the ICAO General Assembly's Economic Commission.