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In a major relief to domestic passengers, the civil aviation ministry has told developers of the new international airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore to restrict user development fee (UDF) to Rs 200 instead of the initially-proposed amounts that were three times higher. However, the ministry is open to the idea of higher airport charges for international passengers.

UDF is in addition to passenger service fee (PSF) of Rs 225 levied at airports across the country. The ministry’s intervention means the GMR Malaysian Airports teams, developer of the Hyderabad airport, and Siemens-Zurich airport consortium, developer of the Bangalore airport, have to restrict UDF to Rs 200 in the case of domestic passengers till the proposed Airport Economic Regu1atory Authority of India (AERA) is set up for regulating airport charges.

In the first four months of operation, the new airports are free to levy airport charges of their choice.

However, they have to seek government approval for their tariffs after this period and that is when the ceiling of Rs 200 per passengers would kick in.

As of now, GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL) plans to collect Rs 1,000 from every passenger taking an international flight from the new airport. There will be no charge for domestic passengers during the initial period. After this period, domestic passengers wo1.1ld pay Rs 650 each time they depart from the new Hyderabad airport.

Bengaluru International Airport Ltd (BIAL) plans to collect Rs 520 from each passenger - for both domestic as well as international services initially. However, the tariff would increase to Rs 675 in case of domestic passengers and Rs 950 in the case of international passengers after two months.

Passengers are left with no option but to pay the steep levy as the old airports at both cities are being dosed. Apart from forking out higher airport charges, passengers are also faced with higher cab charges since the two airports are located outside the cities.

“We may agree to higher UDF for international passengers but charging a steep fee from domestic passengers is out of question,” a senior ministry official said. It is understood airlines have complained that high airport charges would turn air travel unviable on short- haul routes. The aviation ministry is of the view that developers have long concession periods to recover their cost and steep tariffs would be a heavy burden on travelers.

“The UDF private developers have proposed is completely unreasonable. But they should remember that they can collect such fees only for 120 days according to the concession agreement. They have to get their fee approved by us after this period. We feel airport charges of Rs 150toRs200fromdomesticpassengerswouldbe the most reasonable,” the official said.

“It’s very unfortunate that government is playing the part of regulator by interfering into fixing the tariff. It was expected that regulator would be in place at the time of opening of Bangalore and Hyderabad airports but it has not happened as expected,” Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation’s India head Kapil Kaul said.

“Lenders gave money to private developers on the basis of their plan to collect UDF as principle source of revenue. The airport projects are funded on debt-equity basis. Incorporating UDF as source of revenue is a necessity for the companies if they have to be viable,” he said.

The government has proposed setting up of AERA to regulate airport tariff and create competition among airports. It might take some time before the regulator is put in place as a Parliamentary standing committee headed by Sitaram Yechury is reviewing the AERA bill. The bill is likely to be reintroduced in Parliament in the monsoon session.

GHIAL, a joint venture of GMR Group (63%), Airports Authority of India (13%), Andhra Pradesh government (13) and Malaysian Airports Holding Berhad (11%), has invested Rs 2,478 crore to build the Greenfield airport in Hyderabad.

The debt equity ratio of the project stands at 2.1: 1.

For the new Bangalore airport, BIAL, a consortium led by Siemens (40%), Unique Zurich and L&T (17% each), Airports Authority of India and KSIIDC (13% each) has invested Rs 2,470 crore.

While equity, state support, internal accruals and security deposits contributed 35% to the total project cost, the remaining 65 % was raised as debt.

The UDF component was included in the concession agreement to let developers recover their cost, considering the airport would be new and hence little scope of non-aeronautical revenue such as retail and hospitality. It may be noted here that Kochi international airport, the first private commercial airport in the country, collected a UDF of Rs 500 for many years, finally withdrawing it in January 2006.

In the concession agreement between the government and private developers GHIAL and BIAL, neither the UDF amount nor the period for which it would be collected has been specified.

Why is it that while some hardly encounter any resistance or hurdle, certain others seem to be pursued by problems and unfavourable developments in all they take up? Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s explanation in this regard is strikingly original and noteworthy. He notes that the crux of all effective living lies in the exhortation of the Bhagawad Gita, to base oneself in clarity and inner power (yoga) and thereafter perform all actions (yogastah kuru karmani). This is the state, where the aspirant translates into action the three definitions of yoga, as they figure in the Bhagawad Gita-being equanimous (samatvam), being skilful in every action karmasu kaushalam) and being dissociated from all pain (dukha samyoga viyogah).

This also is the process of being in harmony and fulfilled with all aspects within (atmaratih), whereby one also is in harmony with all aspects without too, and the nature all around. Naturally so, he obtains support from all over in the form of congenial surroundings and situations. Not merely does he overcome obstacles, difficulties and opposition, but pre-empts these. This is the visualization of Henry Thoreau in his Walden of “living with the license of a higher order of beings”, where “new, universal and more liberal laws begin to establish themselves around and within”. Realignment of situations and relationships comes about, in view of this cleansing within, in the spirit of Stephen Covey’s concept of “inside out”.

The key to attaining the state of a cleansed and empowered self is through, what Mahesh yogi terms as “stress release”. This is through the process of meditation and through those fulfilling experiences which would serve to neutralize the accumulation of the binding effects of retarding forces and aberrations within (samskara).

These verily are the stresses and toxins within, which erupt invariably all over as unnatural obstacles, resistance and damp squibs and which ward off blessings and positive developments, which would otherwise have come about. Release of these undesirables creates the needed “space” and opens doors to all goodness, joy, promise and potential in line with the concept’ in the Bible (Mathew: 7,7), “Ask and it shall be given unto you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened”. Indeed, this verily, is the happy outcome of obtaining, what Mahesh Yogi terms as ‘nature’s support”.

Once lived on this mortal earth of mother India the great revolutionary Swatantraya Veer Savarkar who not only fought the British yoke but also wrote with a pen smeared in blood and pain. And this pen now blazes once more, thanks to Chandigarh-based publishing house Abhishek Publications that has only recently published four volumes of Savarkar’s writings titled Selected Works of Veer Savarkar.

Shares the publisher Bharat Bhushan: “I was recommended to browse through Savarkar’s The Indian War of Independence and could you believe it, I just couldn’t lay my hands on the book, not even in most libraries, only to find one rare copy at the library in Lala Lajpat Rai Bhawan”. As he read the book with great interest and fascination, he felt it was imperative to share it with others. So he decided to publish the same.

The search led him to Savarkar’s brother’s daughter-in-Law. He sought that the copyright be granted not only for Indian War of Independence but for other works too. And the four-volume selection is, as the preface reminds, a painful journey through the history of dark and turbulent years of British domination, reinventing the bitter memories of injustice.

Amongst other volumes, the biographical work My Transportation to Life is a searing encapsulation of the trials and the sufferings that Savarkar and other prisoners underwent in the infamous cellular jail of Andaman better known as Kaala Paani.

Chilling to the bone, it bares human depravation yet is also about human grit against all odds. Then there is Six Epochs of Indian History that traces Indian history right from Chandragupta’s period to the historic moment of freedom listing the events in-between.

Fourth volume is Hindu Pad Padshahi which explores the essentials of Hindu rashtra. In the volume, Savarkar stresses that Hinduism is different from Hindutava and that Hinduism is only a derivative, a fraction of Hindutava and Hindu is defined by culture and value, not by narrow definition of religion.

But the publisher’s favourite is Indian War of Independence which interestingly was banned when first published, yet became the most widely read book and a ready reckoner for all those nursing the patriotic fervour. Even Nehru has mentioned the book in his Discovery of India. But then Savarakar who wrote the book in the year 1908 at age 24 himself wrote in his magazine Talwar that the object of his writing was to wage a second and successful war against British to liberate the motherland.

The publisher intends to bring out a paperback edition of this encapsulation of what is today being hailed as India’s first war of Independence. But whether there are takers for the exorbitantly priced (nearly Rs 3000) four-volume set presently available, says he, “So far the reader response has been very encouraging”. Indeed for the young generation many of whom may at best have heard Savarkar’s name fleetingly; the book is a cutting reminder that the freedom they are enjoying today has come at a very steep price.

The series of proposals made by the 6th pay commission, if implemented would cost the government Rs 12,561 crore -in 2008-09. In addition it would involve an additional one-time burden of Rs 18060 crore on payment of arrears.

“The Government may pay the arrears in two installments in different years which will mean that the expenditure on this account will be of Rs.6321 crore in Central Budget and Rs.2709 crore in Railway Budget for each of the two years,” the report said. Savings of Rs 4586 crore is likely to accrue on account of various measures suggested in the report. The net financial implication in 2008-09 is estimated to be Rs 7975 crore.

Total cost of implementing the revised pay bands is expected to be Rs.5468 crore per annum. This includes the annual expenditure of Rs.3828 crore on revised pay bands for civilian employees and expenditure of RS.1640 crore per annum for revised pay bands in the Defence Forces.

The biggest saving of Rs 1,800 crore could come from lateral movement of defence forces personnel to central Para-military forces, followed by Rs 1,000 crore on account of rectification of commutation of pension formula. The cost of revised pay band, aimed at averting stagnation at any given level, to the exchequer would be Rs 5,468 crore, including Rs 3,828 crore for civilian and Rs 1,640 crore for defence personnel.

The Commission recommended that the arrears of Rs 18,060 crore be paid in two installments in different years and clarified that the union budget would have to account for as much as Rs 12,642 crore, while the balance of Rs 5,418 crore would have to be provided for in the railway budget. Two installments would lead to a burden of Rs 6,321 crore in the central budget and Rs 2,709 crore in the railway budget in each year.

 ”Including the expenditure on payment of arrears, the additional expenditure for the year 2008 for the government will be Rs 15,563 crore in case arrears are paid over a period of two years with the remaining expenditure of Rs 6,028 crore being borne by the railways in their budget,” the report said.

“A major departure from the earlier pay commission has been made in respect of pay scales… a conscious departure have been made of in recommending running pay band.” Existing expenditure on gratuity is estimated at Rs 2,515 crore p.a. Increased payments on account of the increase in pay scales will result in an additional annual expenditure of Rs 360 crore approximately.