The final programme of the agitation will be chalked out at the National Airports Authority Officers' Association (NAAOA) central executive council meeting to be held in New Delhi on December 21, said Regional Secretary (West), M R Sivakumar.

The NAAOA has already brought these problems to the notice of the Minister of Civil Aviation, Ananth Kumar, and has sought his intervention to solve the issue.

``If our demands are not settled before December 31, technical officers all over the country will resort to a total strike,'' Sivakumar added.

The technical officers affiliated to the NAAOA are solely responsible for the installation, maintenance and operations of various ground navigational aids including state-of-the-art radars, which play a crucial role in guiding the pilot and also make the pilotto Air Traffic Control (ATC) communication possible.

The officers are piqued at the non-implementation of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the NAAOA and the AAI management on November 24, 1997, and are also pressing for other demands like the implementation of the Chaturvedi Committee report on the promotion policy and streamlining the services of the technical staff. The Chaturvedi Committee was formed after the signing of the MoU.

Though a year has passed since the management agreed to disburse proficiency allowances to almost 99 per cent of the technical officers, no executive orders have been issued for the payment of the same so far.

``Instead, only a token proficiency allowance of Rs 1,000 is being extended to all technical executives, which is merely one-tenth of the agreed amount,'' Sivakumar pointed out.

Nearly one-third of the total revenue generated by the AAI comes from the Route Navigational Facilities Charges (RNFC) which have to be paid by various airlines operating inIndia. The RNFC has to be paid also by airlines which overfly Indian air space.

The route navigational aids are spread over all parts of the country and are efficiently installed, maintained, certified and operated by the technical officers of the air traffic services, which also include the services of the air traffic controllers.

Due to the varied nature of the type, make and operation of scores of communication, navigation, surveillance and security equipment, the officers have to undergo rigorous training.

Offended at the management's attitude of yielding to the arm-twisting methods adopted by the ATCs in fulfilling all their demands, Sivakumar said that the technical officers feel dejected due to the ``sheer indifference'' of the AAI towards the demands of the latter.