Monday, December 19 2005 17:16 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Alleging a 'full-fledged scam' in the bid process for the restructuring of Delhi and Mumbai airports, Communist Party of India Marxist (CPI-M) today (Dec 19, 2005) demanded scrapping of the entire exercise, handing over modernisation work in these two airports to Airports Authority of India and building greenfield airports at these metros.

Even as the Inter-Ministerial Group recommendations on the matter were handed over to the empowered Group of Ministers (eGoM) today, leaders of the major Left party said: "If they (eGoM) believe in national interest, they should scrap the process".

At a press conference, CPI(M) MPs Nilotpal Basu and Mohd Salim also charged the government with keeping Parliament in the dark on transferring Nagpur airport's assets from AAI to the Maharashtra government at a token price of Re one.

Basu said the government, in a written reply in Parliament recently, had stated that the transfer of Nagpur airport's assets would be resolved through inter-governmental consultations, whereas the state government and the Civil Aviation Ministry had prepared an MoU for the transfer way back in August.

They alleged that this was done to compensate the state government for its decision to waive off stamp duty worth about Rs 250 crore for the Mumbai airport by transferring the assets of Nagpur airport to it at a nominal price of Re one.

"The stamp duty waiver will only help the selected private party, which wins the bid for Mumbai airport", they said.