New Delhi: Former Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) Vinod Rai has referred to two stories broken by Mail Today in April to highlight the deep mess in the aviation sector in his controversial book The Diary of the Nation's Conscience Keeper-Not Just an Accountant.
The book refers to the Mail Today stories about Air India's (AI) Boeing 777s that were purchased for a staggering Rs 1,300 crore apiece and expected to serve the national carrier for 25 years. However, they were sold at a dirt-cheap price in a distress sale to Etihad Airways just five years later.
The chapter on civil aviation opens with, "If the above statements are true, why did we make the purchases and within five years of the delivery of the aircraft, sell them at roughly Rs 427 crore each to Etihad Airways after having purchased them in 2005 for Rs 1,300 per aircraft? How did our assessment go so horribly wrong? Have we held those responsible accountable? Indeed, will we ever be able to so? When will we learn from our mistakes?" Rai told Mail Today in an exclusive interview on Monday, "An inquiry is needed into the issue. Some kind of a post-mortem is required as to why the decision got so horribly wrong."
16/09/14 S.P.S Pannu & Sanjay Singh/Mail Today/India Today
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The book refers to the Mail Today stories about Air India's (AI) Boeing 777s that were purchased for a staggering Rs 1,300 crore apiece and expected to serve the national carrier for 25 years. However, they were sold at a dirt-cheap price in a distress sale to Etihad Airways just five years later.
The chapter on civil aviation opens with, "If the above statements are true, why did we make the purchases and within five years of the delivery of the aircraft, sell them at roughly Rs 427 crore each to Etihad Airways after having purchased them in 2005 for Rs 1,300 per aircraft? How did our assessment go so horribly wrong? Have we held those responsible accountable? Indeed, will we ever be able to so? When will we learn from our mistakes?" Rai told Mail Today in an exclusive interview on Monday, "An inquiry is needed into the issue. Some kind of a post-mortem is required as to why the decision got so horribly wrong."
16/09/14 S.P.S Pannu & Sanjay Singh/Mail Today/India Today
