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New Delhi , Sept. 18

PROTESTING the Government's move to privatise the airports in Mumbai and Delhi, the Airports Authority Employee's Union (AAEU) today started a relay hunger strike throughout the country.

Office-bearers of the AAEU said that its members had gone on a relay hunger strike at all the 125 airports that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) manages within the country. AAEU officials claimed that they have been kept in the dark about their fate when the two most profitable airports of the AAI are privatised.

AAEU plans to remain on a relay hunger strike throughout the country till September 25 and go on mass casual leave from September 26. Asked whether airline services would be affected after September 26, AAEU office-bearers were non-committal.

"We have different levels of employees as our members. It is possible that the people employed to pick up the garbage may not or the people expected to switch on the runway lights may not be in a position to carry out their duties," AAEU officials said.

The Union Cabinet, at its meeting on September 11, approved a proposal to modernise the airports in Mumbai and Delhi through the joint venture route.

However, AAEU office-bearers admitted that the Supreme Court's recent judgment, which prevented public sector employees from striking work, would affect them.

Meanwhile, sources in Indian Airlines (IA) said that there had been no disruption of services throughout the route network as a result of the AAEU employees' agitation.

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