Thursday, May 12 2005 16:26 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Rebutting a parliamentary panel's observations that Jet Airways had been granted flying rights on certain international routes to help its IPO (Initial Public Offer) prospects, the Civil Aviation Ministry today (May 12, 2005) said there was no link between the two issues and no need for any probe as all due processes were followed while giving permission to the airline.

"I would like to assure the House that there is absolutely no link whatsoever between Government's decision of allowing Indian scheduled carriers to operate on international routes and the IPO issue of any airline," Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said in a statement tabled in Lok Sabha today.

In the statement on the status of implementation of recommendations of the Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, the Minister said, "It is not the function of the Government to keep track of the IPO issues of private enterprises and, in any case, Government decisions are not guided by dates of issue of IPOs of private companies".

"There is no necessity for any further enquiry into this issue by an independent agency, since we have been completely transparent and there is no issue that needs to be investigated," he said.

The panel, in its report earlier, had made strong observations regarding granting the airline passage rights to foreign destinations to help its IPO prospects and sought a probe on how the decision to allow it was taken.

Narrating the sequence of decisions taken by the Government since the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) was in power, Patel said the then Cabinet had allowed Jet Airways and Air Sahara to operate to SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries in December 2003, following which they launched operations to Sri Lanka and Nepal.