AGARTALA, Feb 25 (TIWN): Employees union of Airport Authority of Agartala would participate in all-India strike on March 11 to protest against central government move of privatization of airports. Talking to TIWN, State Unit union secretary Prasenjit Ghosh said the decision to strike work was taken at a meeting of the joint forum of Airports Authority of India (AAI) associations and unions held on last 14 February.

He also said employees here on Tuesday organized an one hour agitation with luncheon meetings, prior to going on strike on March 11. Alleging that the privatization of Delhi and Mumbai airports during the UPA regime was a big "scam" and that civil aviation ministry had "closed down" old airports at Bangalore and Hyderabad without approval of the AAI board, Ghosh  said the government now wants to hand over four more airports, already modernised by AAI, to the private players,

It may be recalled that the  AAI had last month invited request for qualification (RFQ) from domestic and overseas private firms to hand over the management, operation and development of Chennai, Kolkata, Jaipur and Ahmedabad airports, in which it has already invested Rs 5,000 crore.