The technical officers have decided to launch an agitation from January 1, 1999, the programme for which will be chalked out at the central executive council meeting to be held in New Delhi on December 21.

The towers were set up under he Modernisation of Air Traffic Services-Bombay-Delhi (MATS-BD) project, in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) regulations which aim at maintaining compatible air traffic facilities all over the world by the year 2020.

The Air Traffic Service uses the services of air traffic controllers who operate upon equipment like navigational aidsand radars that are installed, certified, and maintained by the technical officers.

The technical officers have argued that creation of separate posts for maintaining the new equipment is inevitable as the systems working at both airports cannot be withdrawn overnight.

``Even when the modernisation of the control towers is complete, the AAI will not be in a position to withdraw the conventional systems,'' National Airports Authority Officers' Association regional secretary (west), M R Sivakumar said.

It is regrettable, Sivakumar added, that the AAI has not realised the importance of professionals trained specially for the MATS-BD project. Their services remain unutilised on account of the paucity of staff operating even the conventional systems, he said. He pointed out that if additional posts at Mumbai and Delhi were not created, it would have a direct bearing on air safety. ``We cannot but be forced to believe that the AAI management is misled and misguided by some vested interests,'' Sivakumaralleged.

Following persistent demands from the officers, the AAI appointed the Chaturvedi Committee to recommend adequate manpower creation of technical posts, but like several other committees appointed earlier, it's recommendations were also consigned to the cold storage.

``The AAI chairman assured that the recommendations of the Chaturvedi Committee will be fully implemented before November 15. But was it our mistake that we did not ask which November 15 in 2000 or 2020?'' Sivakumar added.

The AAI also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the NAAOA on December 24, 1997, which entitled the officers to earn a proficiency allowance. 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 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,'' Sivakumarpointed out.The technical officers are also piqued at the `management bias' in fulfilling most of the ATCs' their counterparts' demands. ``It is surprising that it is only with the ATC discipline that the management has created a sufficient number of posts.'' The ATCs have got almost everything they asked for, Sivakumar said.The NAAOA has already brought these problems to the notice of the Minister of Civil Aviation, Ananth Kumar and demanded his intervention in the impasse.