DGCA row: 5 city pilots decide to complain, send letter to PMO

Problems surfaced after the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) summoned 10 pilots, five from Chennai, to Delhi after they made ‘adverse’ comments against DGCA officials. 

The pilots had commented on a proposal of the DGCA to impose one year notice period for captains and six months’ notice period for junior pilots when they resign from the current airline. The DGCA had proposed it as a civil aviation requirement but pilots said that it only amounted to autocratic intrusion of the DGCA into the human resources policies of airline companies, besides affecting the career prospects of pilots. 

After they posted their comments, DGCA summoned the 10 pilots and even lodged a complaint with the Lodha Road police station, New Delhi, against them. “Lalit Gupta made derogatory remarks against us in public and questioned our ‘mental alertness’. 

We want him removed,” a pilot requesting anonymity told DTNext . Pilot association members conducted a meeting at Palavakkam a few days ago. “We have decided to take up the matter and we will soon submit a letter to the PMO demanding the removal of Lalit Gupta,” an ICPA office-bearer said.