Action against 4 Air India employees for 'stealing' unserved food from planes: Officials
New Delhi, Mar 4: Air India has taken disciplinary action against its four employees for allegedly "stealing" unserved food and dry ration from its planes, senior officials of the national carrier have said.
In August 2017, Air India's Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani had issued an internal communication saying that ground staff and officers often take out unserved food and dry ration "for their personal consumption" on arrival of the aircraft.
"Officials found indulging in such practice should be summarily placed under suspension," the circular read.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a senior official of the national carrier said, "Since the August 2017 circular, the airline has taken action against two employees of the catering department and two cabin crew employees, who were found to be stealing surplus food and rations from planes."
The official said that an assistant manager and a senior assistant in the catering department were suspended for 63 days and three days respectively after they were found indulging in the practice, the official said.
Also, in March last year, two cabin crew members of a New Delhi-Sydney flight were warned and put on domestic flights only, the officials added.
Asked as to how many inspections were carried out by the national carrier post the August 2017 circular, the official said, "The catering division carries out spot and hygiene checks on flights and at caterer's premises on random basis which pertain only to enforcing quality parameters for the in-flight food."
An Air India spokesperson did not respond to specific queries on the matter.
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MP boat tragedy: Death toll climbs to 13; body of last missing person recovered
Jabalpur (PTI): The bodies of a five-year-old boy and his uncle were recovered from Bargi Dam in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur district on Sunday morning, raising the death toll in the cruise boat tragedy to 13, police said.
The boat, around 20 years old and operated by the state tourism department, capsized during a storm on Thursday evening.
"The bodies of Mayuram (5) and his uncle Kamraj (around 50), an employee of the Ordnance Factory in Khamaria, were found floating and were fished out of the dam," Bargi Sub Divisional Officer of Police Anjul Ayank Mishra told PTI over the phone.
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All 13 missing persons identified have now been accounted for, he said, adding the bodies were sent to a government hospital for postmortem.
Teams comprising around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, along with personnel from the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and local divers, were involved in the search operation, the police said.
Of the 41 identified passengers on board the vessel, 28 were rescued after the incident, according to the police.
The CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the boat, though the identities of 41 passengers have been confirmed so far, they said.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the incident and dismissed three crew members. It also banned the operation of similar vessels in the state.
