JAIPUR: The Airport Authority employees’ strike which was supposed to start on Wednesday has been postponed to February 25. The employees will start a relay hunger strike next week against privatisation of the airports. The reason for the push back given by the union head is due to the Pulwama terror attack and the current situation in the country.Balraj Singh Ahlawat, Airport Authority union’s general secretary said, “We were supposed to start the relay hunger strike on Wednesday but have decided to begin it next week instead. There are two main reasons for the delay; one is that in the current situation following the Pulwama attack, airports are extremely important. Also, the management had asked us for some time and we decided to give them that.”The Central government has decided to lease out the six airports of AAI viz. Jaipur, Thiruvananthapuram, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Mangalore for operation, management and development through Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. The employees had protested against this move.“We are just saying that there is no reason for the airports to be privatized and we have been managing as well as running the airports well for the last so many years. We opposed this move as soon as it was announced,” added Ahalwat.Although the relay hunger strike will be done, it will not hamper the functioning of the airports, assured the union head. “We are not trying to trouble the passengers, so operations will not be stopped. However, the hunger strike will continue indefinitely depending on the government’s decision.”Ravinder Singh, union secretary, Jaipur Airport Employees added, “There are 138 employees at our airport and we are currently working out a plan on who all will sit for the hunger strike. The basic plan is that whoever has an off on that particular day will be part of the strike so that the airport can function normally.”

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