Mumbai: Jet Airways on Wednesday said its doors were open for talks with the agitating pilots who continued to stay away from duty crippling the airline's services for the second day.
"Doors are open... we will be sitting together," Jet Airways Chief Commercial Officer Sudheer Raghavan told reporters here.
Asked if it was true that the two pilots sacked last month were not given any valid reason for the management's action, he said Jet had "not gone out of the legal framework."
The sacking of the two pilots for allegedly trying to form an union sparked off an agitation that paralysed the airline's domestic and international flights since Tuesday.
About 400 domestic and international flights of Jet Airways have been cancelled in the last two days resulting in over 14,000 passengers being stranded at various airports.
Raghavan said the airline's domestic bookings had plummeted to 14,000 per day from 23,000 on normal days, in the wake of its pilots going on a mass sick leave.
However, the impact on the international bookings was less as the company retained 9,500 bookings against 10,500 it has on normal days.
"We are able to carry 50 per cent of our passengers on Jet Airways and JetLite flights, while the remaining are being transferred to other airlines," Raghavan said.
Jet takes action against five more pilots
Mumbai: Jet Airways on Wednesday took disciplinary action against five more pilots after they went on mass sick leave to protest sacking of their two senior colleagues, airline sources said.
The airlines has taken disciplinary action against a total of eight pilots since the strike began on Tuesday.
However, Jet Airways spokesperson was not available for comment.
The pilots had called for a strike on August 7 demanding reinstatement of the two sacked colleagues. The matter was then referred to the Regional Labour Commissioner (RLC) for conciliation.
The Commissioner called a conciliatory meeting on August 31 advising both Jet Airways and pilots to adhere to the Industrial Dispute Act of 1947.
Jet cannot terminate the services of any pilot and the pilot cannot go on a strike as long as the matter was under conciliation, the RLC had said at that time.
The pilots withdrew their strike call on September 7 but went on mass sick leave to protest the sacking.
Jet pilots' stir enters day 2, over 150 flights cancelled
New Delhi: Over 150 domestic and overseas Jet Airways flights were cancelled after more than 400 pilots failed to report for work on the second day on Wednesday, leaving passengers stranded, even as the airline warned of stringent action if the cockpit crew did not call off the agitation.
As the stir continued, Jet chief Naresh Goyal met Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel in Delhi and briefed him about the situation. Both Goyal and Patel declined to take queries from reporters after their hour-long discussion.
The Minister is understood to have conveyed to Goyal to take steps urgently to end the agitation.
As many as 153 flights, including 19 international, have been cancelled across the country as 432 out of 1056 pilots did not report for work today, a company spokesperson said in Mumbai. The total number of pilots includes 160 expats.
Earlier, Goyal warned that the airlines will be left with no option but to "sack more" if the agitators did not follow the company rules and procedures.
He made it clear that the company did not recognise the National Aviators Guild (NAG), spearheading the stir to demand reinstatement of some pilots who were sacked for forming the NAG, which claims a membership of 680.
Most of the morning flights of Jet were cancelled except those to Europe, the UK, North America and Singapore, airport sources said in Mumbai and Delhi.
Terming the agitation as "completely wrong and illegal", Goyal said the "pilots cannot hold the airlines, country and passengers to ransom".
Gujarat HC stays Tamang report on Ishrat encounter
AHMEDEBAD: The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday stayed metropolitan magistrate S P Tamang's report which had described as fake the police encounter in which alleged terror group operative Ishrat Jahan and three others were killed.
Acting on a a Gujarat government petition seeking a stay on the report, Justice Kalpesh Javheri said the observations made in the report were beyond the jurisdiction of the judicial magistrate.
Justice Javheri also ordered the appropriate authority of the high court to look into the actions of magistrate Tamang and take necessary action.
The next hearing of the case is on September 30. However, the court has given liberty to Ishrat's mother to produce the report before the three-member committee constituted by the High Court last month to investigate the encounter.
It further said the report can be considered as evidence by the committee.
The four persons, claimed to have been killed by the police in an encounter on the outskirts of the city on June 15, 2004 were Ishrat, Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai, Amjad Ali alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana and Jisan Johar Abdul Gani.
Terrorists cannot be killed in cold blood: Union Home Secy
New Delhi: The Ishrat Jahan killing in an alleged fake encounter took a new turn with a senior official in the Law Ministry removed from his post in the wake of controversy over the Centre's affidavit in the Gujarat High Court while the Home Ministry stuck to its guns that the four were suspects.
As a controversy raged over the killing of the four suspected terrorists by the Gujarat police in 2004, the Union Home Secretary G K Pillai, however, said that "terrorists cannot be killed in cold blood."
Highly-placed sources in the Law Ministry said that the Law Officer, who had failed to bring the affidavit to the notice of the ministry, has been removed. The sources, however, did not explain the nature of the action against the official.
The sources also said that the Home Ministry did not get the affidavit vetted by the Law Ministry before it was filed in the High Court in case arising out of a petition filed by Ishrat's mother against the police.
A magisterial probe into the killing of the four people in June, 2004 on the outskirts of Ahmedabad had on Monday concluded that the encounter was fake.
The Gujarat government had claimed on Tuesday that the encounter against the four alleged operatives of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) was carried out on the basis of information given by central intelligence agencies.
"Whatever we have given in the affidavit is a fact available with the Home Ministry...we are not backtracking from the affidavit," Pillai told reporters in New Delhi.
CBI reconstitutes team probing Aarushi murder case
NEW DELHI: After failing to make any breakthrough in the sensational Aarushi-Hemraj murder case, the CBI has reconstituted its team of officials to go into the double murder.
The new team will be headed by SP, CBI Neelabh Krishna while joint director Lucknow Javed Ahmed and special director S C Sinha have been given supervisory roles. Other members of the team will be chosen on the recommendation of Ahmed and Sinha, CBI spokesperson said here today.
"This was necessitated as SP incharge Vijay Kumar was transferred and Arun Kumar joint director is going back to his cadre. joint director Lucknow Javed Ahmed and special director S C Sinha will be at the Supervisory level. The other members of team will be posted as per recommendations of the supervisory officers," he said.
Kumar, a 1985-batch IPS officer, will be joining his parent cadre Uttar Pradesh in November this year.
CBI officials maintain that the decision was taken because the present director believed that there should be complete decentralisation of the cases and this case should be investigated by CBI sleuths in Lucknow.
The new team was likely to start investigation right from scratch as now even the vaginal swab of 14-year-old Aarushi seems to have been misplaced or not taken at all.
They said there was no semen, as alleged initially, in the slides sent to the centre and corroborative testing revealed that the material was not drawn from Aarushi.
Sunil Dohere, a doctor, had taken vaginal swabs following Aarushi's murder on May 15, 2008. The doctor reported that the swabs contained a white discharge, suggestive of seminal fluid.
But, Dohere's senior, S C Singhal, later said the slides prepared from the swabs had tested negative for semen.
Aarushi was found murdered in her Noida home on May 15, 2008. Their domestic help Hemraj, initially suspected of the crime, was later found dead on the roof-top.
Indian Business News
RIL pushes Sensex up by 60 points
Mumbai: Led by market leader RIL, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Wednesday gained nearly 60 points to extend the winning steak to the fourth day in succession.
The 30-share index closed higher by 59.88 points at 16,183.55 after volatile trade on alternate bouts of trading. In four days of trading, Sensex has added 785.22 points.
Wider index Nifty on the National Stock Exchange rose by 9 points to 4,814.25.
Heavyweight Reliance Industries shot up by Rs 99.35 to Rs 2,174.50 as crude oil prices held their grounds which helped allay fears of company's revenue falling. RIL has more than 14 per cent weight on the Sensex.
Commodity stock Hindalco Industries, the biggest aluminum producer in the country, was another big gainer among the elite stocks at 4.14 per cent. Marketmen said the uptrend in base-metal prices in the London Metal Exchange was reflected commodity stocks.
Sterlite Industries, the biggest copper and zinc producer, also rose by 1.03 per cent.
Marketmen said a steep rise in Reliance Industries' stocks saved the market from ending in the negative zone despite a weakening trend in other Asian stock markets.
In the 30-BSE index stocks, 13 scrips closed higher, while 17 ended with losses.
They said the market was little jittery ahead of the weekly inflation data to be released tomorrow.
The oil and gas sector index gained the most by rising 2.36 per cent to 10,368 as refinery stocks of Reliance Industries, Essar Oil, Reliance Petro and Cairn India recorded handsome gains.
Raju is on life saving drugs:Police
Hyderabad: Former Chairman of Satyam Computers B Ramalinga Raju is being administered life saving drugs for heart ailment in NIMS hospital here, Chanchalguda Jail authorities said on Wednesday.
"The Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) have sent a medical report on the various tests conducted on Raju, stating that doctors are giving life saving injections to him for treating cardiac ailment and he needs to be in the hospital for a few more days," Chanchalguda Jail Superintendent M Chandrasekhar said.
"I received the medical report of Raju this afternoon wherein the doctors have informed that Raju needs more rest," the Jail official said, adding the doctors attending on him did not specifically mention on how many days' rest and treatment Raju needs.
Raju, who was admitted in NIMS on Monday evening with chest pain, suffered a heart attack and the treatment is continuing in Intensive Coronary Care Unit (ICCU), NIMS Medical Superintendent said.
51% India Inc back on hiring trail
New Delhi: Job prospects for professionals and managers have brightened as over half of the companies in the country have begun hiring, a global survey has said.
According to a quarterly survey by global recruitment firm Antal International, the percentage of companies in India hiring professionals and managers has rebounded to 51 per cent currently, after a dramatic fall to 29 per cent at the beginning of 2009.
“As a result job prospects for professionals and managers in India are now better than global average,” the survey said.
Globally, the current hiring levels have also improved to 50 per cent now from 46 per cent in April.
Hiring outlook for the next three months also looks promising, with as many as 66 per cent Indian companies expecting to recruit.
Moreover, the job cuts are expected to drop to 21 per cent over the next quarter.
“After a substantial dip in hiring levels at the start of 2009, confidence seems to have returned to the Indian job market in a dramatic fashion. Two thirds of the businesses we spoke to are already in the process of hiring for the next quarter,” Antal International India Managing Partner Joseph Devasia said.
Indian Sports News|Sports News
Vijender a win away from creating another history
New Delhi: More than a year after he broke India's Olympic jinx in boxing, Vijender Singh is just a win away from ensuring the country's maiden World Championship medal after advancing to the quarterfinals with a hard-fought win in Milan, Italy.
The Olympic bronze medal-winning middle weight pugilist, who is seeded number one in the event, joined compatriot Dinesh Kumar (81kg) in the last-eight stage with a 4-2 win over Canadian Steve Rolls late last night.
"It was low scoring and there were some tense moments but I am happy to have come out on top in the end," Vijender said from Milan.
The Haryana-boxer was trailing 0-1 in the opening round but drew form his experience and long reach to get the better of his rival.
"The scoring was tough but the support that I got from my team, coaches and the fans here was enough to keep me focused," he said.
Vijender landed a couple of straight punches to end the second round 2-1 up. In the third round, Vijender increased his lead by a couple of more points and spent the final few seconds of the bout dodging his opponent with intelligent footwork and sharp jabs.
"I know I am on the verge of another historic first but I am not nervous and feeling quite confident about winning my next bout," the 23-year-old world number two, who takes on Ukraine's Sergiy Derevyanchenko in the last-eight stage later tonight, said.
"I have never competed against this Sergiy. He comes from a country that has a good reputation internationally but I am confident about my game. I am in good form and feeling fit.
Bhupathi-Knowles, Paes-Dlouhy in semis
Wednesday, Sep 09, 2009: hrs Mahesh Bhupathi and his partner Mark Knowles of Bahamas outwitted Croatian Ivan Ljubicic and Frenchman Michael Llodra in the men's doubles quarter final at US Open here.
Bhupathi and Knowles seeded third beat Ljubicic and Llodra 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 in the quarter-finals at the Flushing Meadows to book their berth in the semi-final.
The pair have now joined Leander Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy, who moved into the semi-final of the men's doubles earlier today.
Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy moved into the men’s doubles semi-finals after a tough win in three sets over Wesley Moodie of South Africa and Belgian Dick Norman. The Indo-Czech duo had earlier beaten the pair in the final of the French Open this year, and on Tuesday, they had to fight back strongly after the seventh seeds ensured the match would go into a decisive third set.
However, Paes and Dlouhy stayed steady for a 6-3 5-7 6-4 win. Paes will also face Moodie in the Davis Cup playoff in South Africa in a week’s time. The Paes-Dlouhy pair will now meet top seeded Bob and Mike Bryan of United States in the semifinals.
Meanwhile, second seeded pair of Leander Paes and Zimbabwean Cara Black, booked their birth in mixed doubles final of the US Open by beating 6-2, 3-6, 10-5 the fifth seeded pair of Hsieh Su-wei, Taiwan, and Kevin Ullyett, Zimbabwe, in the semifinals.
Paes and Black earlier secured a berth in the semifinal of the mixed doubles category defeating Australian-Swede combination of Rennae Stubbs and Robert Lindstedt 7-5 3-6 10-6.
Sehwag's absence is a huge loss: Kirsten
CHENNAI: The number one spot well within its sight, India's coach Gary Kirsten on Wednesday said the team would draw inspiration from its past success in Sri Lanka as it copes with the "huge" loss of not having explosive opener Virender Sehwag for the tri-series in the island nation.
The Indian team, on Wednesday, left for Sri Lanka for the tri-series that also features New Zealand and Kirsten said not having Sehwag, who is ruled out due to a shoulder injury, in the side is quite a blow.
Asked who would be opening the innings with Gautam Gambhir, Kirsten said, "We are not sure about the combination. We would decide it on the day of the game. But obviously, missing Sehwag is huge. He is a high quality player and any team would love to have him in the mix. But we have got a lot of depth in the team."
However, Kirsten was quite excited about Rahul Dravid's return to the team after being out for close to two years.
"It's great to have him. With the sort of experience he brings, it's going to help the team. It's great," he said.
A clean-sweep in the short series would catapult India to the top of the ICC ODI rankings and Kirsten said being the best in the world is high on the team's list of targets for the next eight months.
"We have set our goals. One of them is to be the best cricket team in the world. We are headed that way and we are very excited. We know we have to perform well as we continue the quest to be the best," Kirsten said.
The team enjoyed a welcome break after a gruelling first half of the year and Kirsten said having the Corporate Trophy just a few days ahead of the tri-series will ensure that the players don't turn up rusty in Sri Lanka.
"I think it was great to have a six-week break followed by the Corporate Trophy. It gave the players games before a big series. We might have been a bit rusty but the Corporate Trophy has helped," he said.
Asked about the team's chances in the tri-series, Kirsten said, "We won the last two series in Sri Lanka and we are confident. But we think ahead and don't harp on the results of the past."
"We have got a good batting line-up which is quite flexible in the middle. We would like to mix it up during the series," he said.
"We have got a very good run in One-day cricket. We have got good depth in the side and the younger players have proved themselves," he added.
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