Morung Express News
Dimapur | November 17
The Director of the Dimapur Airport called for vigilance against scammers, who operate fictitious online recruitment drives for employment in the aviation sector. The modus operandi often involves schemers preying on unsuspecting job-seekers by advertising non-existent posts over phone/email, conducting online interviews/selection, charging fees, issuing fake appointment letters, eventually conning the victims of huge sums of money.
Dimapur Airport Director, Mughavi Zhimo told a section of the media today that such scams have become increasingly common and the youths, especially those aspiring to join the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the aviation industry to be watchful. “When youths are looking for jobs, they become vulnerable to such scams,” he said.
He added that he has come across 4 such cases this year alone and get inquiries from people asking about jobs which were never officially advertised. “When I come across such cases, I tell the victims to file police complaint and I have even reported to the police,” he said.
According to him, the scammers use the name of the AAI and private airlines to win the confidence of the victims.
He recounted an incident this year which was also reported by The Morung Express, when a girl came to the airport with a fake appointment letter and flight tickets, for a non-existent post, bearing the name and logo of the AAI and an airline. It turned out that the girl was duped into appearing for online interviews and transferring money to the scammers as registration and training fees. She was mailed a fake appointment letter and travel ticket for a non-existent flight.
He reminded that the AAI and flight operators/airlines are different entities with different priorities and will never conduct recruitment exams together.
The AAI is a statutory body under the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, which manages airports across the country, while airlines use the airports to operate civilian/commercial flights. “AAI does not conduct recruitment exams for airlines and the airlines do recruit on behalf of the AAI,” he maintained.
For recruitment, he said that the AAI issues public advertisements, which are also posted on its official website: www.aai.aero, and it has not outsourced the recruitment process to any party, while appointment is never done at the local level.
The appointing authority for non-executive/junior level posts is the Regional Executive Director and for executive posts, it is the AAI headquarters, he informed.
Further, he said that the AAI never charges money from job candidates for recruitment.
“People should be really careful not to fall prey to such frauds,” he said, while adding that any person should cross-check and verify when they get job interview offers from random numbers or emails.
Dimapur airport to start cargo shipping
Meanwhile, the Director also informed that the Dimapur Airport is going to start cargo shipping service. According to Zhimo, the Dimapur Airport authority has submitted a proposal to the Bureau of Civil Aviation for starting cargo operations under a scheme of the Union Civil Aviation Ministry for facilitating quick market linkage for agricultural products produced in Nagaland.
He informed that the cargo complex to start the service is already constructed and once the proposal gets approval, it will benefit farmers as it will pave the way for exporting agricultural produce via air at subsidized freight rates. For shipping of farm products identified for air transport subsidy under the scheme, the freight rate will be subsidized by 50 percent.
For comparison, an official of a private airline at the airport informed that currently, the freight rate for normal cargo comes to roughly Rs 60-70 per kilogram for the Dimapur-Kolkata route.
He further informed that the Dimapur airport, taking advantage of the lockdown this year, has revamped passenger amenities, including restrooms, in the terminal. According to him, the toilets, “which were in a pitiable condition,” were given a complete makeover, while new ones were built incorporating wheelchair-friendly design.
