EK Bharat Bhushan

New Delhi, July 11: The dismissed civil aviation regulator, E.K. Bharat Bhushan, was shown the door 24 hours before he had planned to take action against Kingfisher Airlines.

The directorate-general of civil aviation (DGCA) had lined up an order, which included a threat to ground the Vijay Mallya-owned troubled airline, if it did not pay salaries and act on a recovery plan.

Bhushan, a Kerala-cadre IAS officer of the 1979 batch, was asked to quit at 4.30pm on Tuesday only nine days after his term as DGCA chief was extended by the appointments committee of the cabinet.

Sources said Bhushan had been preparing to despatch the order today as Kingfisher, disregarding the schedule filed with the regulator in February, was operating with fewer flights.

Worried about the safety of passengers travelling on the airline and continuous failure to pay the dues of employees and other agencies, Bhushan had written a lengthy report to the civil aviation ministry two days ago, the sources said.

“In the report, he said that Kingfisher did not have adequate number of aircraft, was finding it difficult to acquire aviation turbine fuel and had not paid salary dues for six months, which had demotivated and frustrated the staff. Other than not keeping the promise of running the airline according to the schedule submitted to the DGCA, the airline was a danger to its passengers as pilots were flying under immense stress,” a DGCA source said.

Bhushan’s extension as the DGCA was cleared by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. “The extension was done with the approval of all ministers concerned. The file was finally signed by the Prime Minister after all approvals,” said a ministry official.

Government sources say there could not have been any flaw in the procedure followed in giving Bhushan extension till December 2012. They added that civil aviation minister Ajit Singh would discuss the removal of Bhushan with Manmohan Singh on Thursday.

The ministry has written a letter to the Prime Minister informing his office about the removal, explaining the step. The secretary has also informed the appointments committee of the cabinet.

Former civil aviation minister Vayalar Ravi said Bhushan’s dismissal came as a surprise. “Bharat Bhushan is one of the finest officers. He believes in norms. When I was in charge of civil aviation, he took all efforts to check corrupt practices, agents. He never spared Air India and was a strict officer.”

Civil aviation minister Ajit Singh tonight said Bhushan’s removal was a “routine step”.

“There is no question of compromising on safety issue for any airline,” he said, reiterating his stand that Kingfisher would lose its licence if it failed to maintain the skeletal schedule it had submitted to the DGCA.

Some believe that Bhushan might be paying the price for saying no, not once but time and again to everyone, starting from the civil aviation ministry, the Air India management to business houses running private airlines.

This is not the first time the Kerala-cadre IAS officer of the 1979 batch is at loggerheads with the ministry and other agencies. “When the Air India impasse was on, he refused to revoke licences of the 10 Indian Pilots’ Guild office-bearers who the Air India management wanted removed. He clearly told them that he as a safety regulator could not take action against them over a labour issue. This did not go down well with the Air India management,” said a civil aviation official.