Delhi Airport Scam also called DIAL Scam or IGI Scam is one of the biggest scam that rocked India.
In the “Implementation of public-private partnership Indira Gandhi International Airport Delhi” report, an estimate scandal of 1.63 lakh crores was asserted by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
The government of India is accused to have given the land related to the Delhi Airport modernization project to its private sector partner, DIAL (Delhi International Airport Limited). The CAG was quoted saying, “The projected earning capacity of this land (239.95 acres) in terms of license fee over the concession period of 58 years was indicated by Dial itself as Rs. 681.63 crores per acre in a letter to the joint secretary, aviation ministry.” The total value of the land allotted to Dial is said to be around Rs. 24 thousand crores. DIAL is said to possess 4799.09 thousand acres of land. Rs. 1813 crores is said to be the total equity contribution. As expected, the DIAL spokesperson has repeatedly denied all the alleged charges but the report submitted by the CAG is indeed true.
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The most astonishing fact pointed by the CAG of India was that because of this scandal the passengers were forced to levy the development fees was nearly Rs. 3, 415.45 crores. The IGI airport project never mentioned that the development fees would be levied on the passengers.
The ministry of civil aviation has however is not supporting the CAG report saying that the decision to restructure and remodel the airport was decided by the support of the cabinet and that the empowered group of ministers were also responsible for finalizing the terms and conditions related to the project.
The current status shows that the development fee is continuously being charged by the passengers which ranges from Rs. 220 to Rs. 520 for domestic passengers and Rs. 490 to 1200 for international passengers. Dial spokesperson on the other hand have denied all the allegations saying that the revenue that is left with Dial is the amount that the CAG of India is accusing it for. DIAL further states that the land for commercial use allotted to it was always a part of the agreement and that the government has been saved of its stamp duties because of the generation of these revenues.
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The Kissan Mahasangh that is heading this agitation has said that the scandal has resulted in a loss on the part of both the farmers and the passengers. The farmers have lost their lands at cheap rates and the passengers have to pay the development fees. One thing that is true to this scandal is that it has resulted in loss of both the rich and the poor, flight passengers being the rich targets and farmers being the poor targets. In most of the cases it is the poor which are mostly affected. It is the duty of the Indian citizens to join hands against such scandals for the proper development of the Indian economy.