TRIVANDRUM, 27 January — Kerala has drawn the attention of the federal civil aviation minister to a state-funded study that found corruption and malpractice by Air-India in the Gulf-Kerala sector. It asked the federal government to allow more foreign airlines to fly from the Gulf to its three airports and end the monopoly of India’s flag carrier in the sector, a Non-resident Keralites Affairs (NORKA) department spokesman said.
The study titled Gulf Migration Study: Employment, Wages and Working Conditions of Kerala Emigrants in the United Arab Emirates, conducted last year by the prestigious Center for Development Studies (CDS) here, found that Air-India was resorting to corruption and malpractices while flying Kerala migrants to the Gulf destinations as it enjoyed a monopoly in the sector.
The study recommends the state government to take steps to end the monopoly of the state-run AI and Indian Airlines over the Kerala skies so that the emigrants got a better deal and to request the federal Civil Aviation Ministry to institute an inquiry into its irrational framing of airfare and the corrupt practices in issuing of tickets.
The study also suggests ending the users fee levied on international passengers at the airports. The users fee may be reduced to 100 rupees as against 500 rupees and made applicable to the domestic and international passengers alike.
According to the study, the number of Kerala workers in the UAE went up from 206,000 in 1984 to 477,000 in 1992 and came down to 355,000 in 1998. Saudi Arabia and UAE remains the favorite destinations for the Kerala migrants.
The study also called for a reduction in the capitation and other fees charged by professional colleges for non-resident Indians under the NRI quota. The state government may formulate saving and pension schemes. It has suggested that banks with branches in the UAE formulate a cumulative savings scheme.
A vast majority of the returning emigrants are facing abject poverty. As many as 750,000 migrants have returned, with Malappuram district topping the list with 123,000 returnees, followed by Trivandrum (118,000) and Thrissur (116,000). As many as 41.2 percent of them returned from Saudi Arabia, followed by Dubai (11.4), Muscat (9.9), Abu Dhabi (8.5), and Sharjah and Bahrain (six each). The report identifies infrastructure development and tourism as the two sectors where the returnees potential could be utilized by way of setting up cooperatives for them with specific tasks. The study recommends creating a high-power NRI Investment Board, with the NORKA secretary as chairman.
The NORKA officials said the government had accepted all the proposals and was seriously working on them.
