Jet pilots behaving like 'terrorists' : Chairman

Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal on Wednesday warned of stern action against his pilots if they behave like "terrorists" and continue to report sick "in violation of a Bombay High Court order".

"They are behaving like terrorists. They cannot hold the country, passengers and the airline hostage," Goyal said, as the carrier was forced to cancel some 170 flights for the second day running. "I am open to meeting and talking to the pilots. I will be more than happy to meet them. But they cannot harass the passengers," he said.

"We won't tolerate such blackmail. The livelihood of more than 30,000 employees of Jet Airways is at stake," the airline chief said after another round of meetings with top government officials in New Delhi. "This is pure and simple contempt of court," he added, referring to the Bombay High Court order on Tuesday evening, restraining the pilots from any form of strike in the country's largest private airline.

The operations of Jet Airways were disrupted for the second straight day on Wednesday because of the mass "sick leave" by pilots, resulting in some 170 flights being cancelled.
The pilots are demanding the reinstatement of two of their colleagues who were sacked last month, which they say was done mainly because of their role in the formation of a separate union. Late on Tuesday, three more pilots of the carrier were sacked, followed by another five added to the list on Wednesday morning. This led to the pilots hardening their stand.

Capt Girish Kaushik, the president of the newly-formed National Aviators' Guild, said he was hoping to meet the management of Jet Airways on Wednesday to resolve the matter amicably. "I am willing to meet the management," Kaushik said, before his talks with the officials of the ministry and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

According to Jet Airways chairman, while no estimate was available on the actual monetary loss because of the agitation, the carrier had lost out heavily in terms of the inconvenience caused to passengers. "We had bookings from more than 14,000 domestic passengers and 9,500 international passengers," he said, seeking to project the losses in terms of how many passengers the airline was unable to fly.

Always keep......

            I was a very happy man.    My wonderful girlfriend

             and I had been dating for over a year, and so we

                decided to get married. There was only one

             little thing bothering me...It was her beautiful

                             younger sister.


          My prospective sister-in-law was twenty-two, wore very

            tight miniskirts, and generally was bra-less. She

               would regularly bend down when she was near

          me, and I always got more than a nice view. It had to

           be deliberate. Because she never did it when she was

                            near anyone else.


            One day her 'little' sister called and asked me to

           come over to check the wedding invitations. She was

          alone when I arrived, and she whispered to me that she

            had feelings and desires for me that she couldn't

            overcome. She told me that she wanted me just once

        before I got married and committed my life to her sister.

           Well, I was in total shock, and couldn't say a word.

           She said, 'I'm going upstairs to my bedroom, and if

         you want one last wild fling, just come up and get me.'


          I was stunned and frozen in shock as I watched her go

          up the stairs. I stood there for a moment, then turned

             and made a beeline straight to the front door. I

           opened the door, and headed straight towards my car.

         Lord... and behold, my entire future family was standing

                          outside, all clapping!


          With tears in his eyes, my father-in-law hugged me and

            said, 'We are very happy that you have passed our

                little test. We couldn't ask for a better

              man for our daughter. Welcome to the family.'

                     And the moral of this story is:

                  Always keep your condoms in your car.

Andhra Pradesh CM - YSR dead in chopper crash: PMO sources

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy has died in an air crash, the Prime Minister's Office said on Thursday.

The bodies of 60-year-old Reddy, who led his Congress party to a spectacular second consecutive victory in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, and his Special Secretary P Subramanyam, chief security officer A S C Wesley, pilot Group Captain S K Bhatia and co-pilot M S Reddy were found on Rudrakonda Hill, 40 nautical miles east of here, besides the mangled remains of the helicopter.

There was no official confirmation of the deaths, but highly placed Congress sources in Delhi said that the bodies have been found. An official statement is expected shortly.

A scheduled meeting of the Union Cabinet was cancelled following the tragedy.

The helicopter carrying YSR Reddy, two of his staff and two pilots went missing in pouring rain Wednesday morning over the Naxal and tiger-infested Nalamalla forests.

Nearly 24 hours after YSR's chopper went missing; it was located atop Serai Salem hill, at a distance 40 nautical miles (70 kms) east of Kurnool.

The CM left Hyderabad on a six-seater Bell chopper at 8.35am for Chittoor accompanied by his secretary and chief security officer. After 9.27am, radio contact was lost with the helicopter.

Soon after the chopper lost contact, multiple agencies of the state launched a massive hunt for possible wreckage in the desolate terrain. By evening, it expanded into the country's biggest-ever search operation with satellites in the sky joining remote sensing aircraft, fighter jets, unmanned aerial vehicles, troops on the ground and even barefoot deer-hunting tribal's with bows and arrows.

Talk as long as you want only Pay Re 1/call - Tata Indicom

Telecom major Tata Indicom on Tuesday launched a 'pay per call' plan for its pre-paid subscribers, in which subscribers will have to pay fixed charge on a per-call basis both for local and STD usage, regardless of the call duration.

"Our pre-paid subscribers will pay a fixed charge of Re 1 per local call and Rs 3 for STD calls for unlimited duration, said MD of Tata Teleservices Anil Sardana while launching the new tariff system. Tata Indicom operates CDMA-based mobile services in the country and has a customer base of 40 million subscribers.

The new tariff system, which will intensify the rate war, is valid on all calls made by Tata Indicom subscribers to "any mobile phone or landline connection on any network", said a statement issued by Tata. The new offer has also cut SMS charges to 50 paise per SMS for both local and national messages.

The service is available to all new Tata Indicom connections and existing customers can adopt the offer with a one-time recharge of Rs 96. The statement said, all subscribers who opt for it will be charged a daily fee of Re 1 to avail the option.

However, the new tariff will not be available to the post paid subscribers. The company may introduce it for the post paid customers also after assessing its success among the pre-paid customers.

COO of NCR region of Tata Teleservices Vineet Bhatia said, "The product is the result of research and studies to understand consumer trends and usage patterns." He added customers who opt for this plan will no longer have to worry about the cost every minute of a call. "Also, the fact that this offer is for both local and STD calls makes it unique, something that holds the potential to completely redefine the Indian telecom pricing paradigm," he said.