Air India got 9 showcauses in 6 months for safety violations: Minister

NEW DELHI: Nine show-cause notices were issued to Air India during the last six months in connection with five identified safety violations, Union junior aviation minister Murlidhar Mohol said in reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

Enforcement action has been completed in respect of one violation, he added.Regarding the AI Dreamliner that had crashed in Ahmedabad on June 12, the minister said no adverse trend had been reported in reliability reports of Air India for that aircraft in the last six months.Meanwhile, govt admitted in Parliament that there is a shortage in aviation agencies like the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), and Airports Authority of India (AAI), which also provides air traffic services.According to a parliamentary reply, the DGCA as of Monday had 823 vacancies, BCAS had 230 and AAI had 3,238."Some positions have been created in the last couple of years: 441 posts, including 426 technical posts, have been created between 2022 and 2024, 84 operational posts were created in restructuring of BCAS in 2024, and 840 posts of air traffic controllers have been created recently," Mohol said."Keeping in view current and future expansion of civil aviation and effective supervision, additional posts have been created in DGCA, BCAS and AAI.

The shortfall has not impacted the functioning of these organisations. Further, all methods of recruitment are pursued vigorously in order to ensure timely and continuous availability of requisite manpower," he said."To meet requirements in the interregnum due to vacancies arising from reasons like inadequate response to advertisements, non-joining of selected candidates, persons with insufficient service in the feeder cadre for promotion, insufficient response to deputation posts, efforts are made to recruit persons through short-term contractual hiring," the minister said.