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Sushil Modi to raise non-inclusion of Bihar cities in Environment programme

Patna: Lamenting that no cities of Bihar was included in the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), state Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi today said he would raise the issue at the environment ministers’ conference.

The government has formulated the NCAP as a medium-term national-level strategy to tackle the increasing air pollution problem across the country.

“I will raise the issue of cities from Bihar not being included in Union Ministry of Environment and Forest’s Rs 637 crore ‘National Clean Air Programme’ at the one-day states’ environment ministers’ conference in Delhi tomorrow,” Modi said in a release.

The Central Pollution Control Board has included 94 cities in the NCAP but not one of those are from Bihar, said Modi who also holds finance and environment and forest departments.

He said the recent World Health Organisation’s report termed air pollution in three cities of Bihar as ‘worrying’.

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Air India seeks restoration of equity infusion from government

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Mumbai: Air India has asked the government to “restore” equity infusion in the carrier after it failed to find any takers for its disinvestment.

The loss-making carrier has already received more than Rs 26,000 crore under the bailout package announced by the former UPA government in April 2012.

“We have sought restoration of the equity infusion in Air India and have written to the government last week in this regard,” a senior airline official said.

The official, however, did not disclose the amount of the funds the airline was looking at.

The UPA government had approved a turnaround plan under which Air India is to receive a total equity infusion worth Rs 30,231 crore up to 2021, subject to meeting certain performance thresholds.

Amid fund crunch, during which Air India also had to defer its staff salaries, the airline borrowed Rs 6,250 crore from various banks between September last year and January this year for working capital requirements and other needs.

The carrier, which has a debt burden of about Rs 50,000 crore till March last year, had been receiving about Rs 3,000-4,000 crore equity infusion on an average per fiscal from the government till FY14. However, after that, the amount was gradually reduced.

For 2018-19, the airline has been allocated Rs 650 crore in view of its now failed disinvestment plan.

The government had proposed to offload 76 percent equity share capital of the national carrier as well as transfer the management control to private players, besides the complete sale of its low-cost arm Air India Express and its
entire stake in 50:50 joint venture AI-SATS.

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