Based on the Minister's orders, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has paid the full amount to Akaar Advertising and Marketing Limited, and is now asking Indian Airlines, Air India and Pawan Hans Helicopters Limited to pay their share of this. The story behind this dates back to December, when Kumar insisted that AI, IA , Pawan Hans and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) place a series of advertisements through Akaar, even though it was not on the panel of accredited advertisement agencies of these PSUs.

Theadvertisements were placed, and Akaar was all set to pocket the standard 15 per cent agency commission, when on January 10, The Indian Express sent a questionnaire to Kumar on the matter. A near panic ensued and, acting on Kumar's orders, Akaar representatives called bewildered AAI officials and said that the campaign was gratis, that the full agency commission was to be refunded to it. When contacted by The Indian Express at that time, an Akaar representative had said: ``It was a delicate matter for us as we did not really have a choice. We just followed the Minister's directions to return the payment.''

But now three months after the furore subsided, the Minister's office has issued instructions to the four Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) to split the Rs 47 lakh tab.

The flip-flop on the payments have landed AAI in a soup. Following the Minister's intervention, AAI made the full payment to Akaar on March 4. This after AAI was told by Akaar that the campaign ``highlighting the achievements of theMinistry of Civil Aviation during the last eight months'' was gratis. AAI is now trying to get the other agencies to pay their share of Rs 12 lakh.

AAI has sent identical SOS letters to the managing directors of IA, AI and chairman & managing director, Pawan Hans Helicopter Limited. The letters say: ``Please refer to Shri Arvind Risbud, PS to minister. The agency M/s Akaar has presented a bill of Rs 47,23,484..... This is to be equally shared by four PSUs....However, on the advice of the Office of Minister of Civil Aviation payment has been made to Akaar by AAI... This is to request for early payment of earlier said share ...''

Since the other PSUs had been told earlier by Akaar that the work was free, they are baulking at paying their share. Says a senior Indian Airlines (IA) official:``The campaign was shoddy. Full of errors. Then we were told that it was free. Now, this''. The error in question was an Akaar advertisement which showed a four engine plane with IA livery. No IA airplane currently in thefleet has four engines.

Earlier, in awarding the contract to Akaar, Kumar ignored the rules which explicitly state that campaigns cannot be awarded to non-accredited agencies. Their's is a rigorous process of selection after which agencies are put on the panel for the aviation PSUs. These include agencies such as Clarion, Lintas and HTA.

In the case of Akaar a note issued by the ``Office of The Minister of Civil Aviation'' sufficed. The7note issued by his PS, Arvind Risbut on December 12 says: ``As desired by the MCA (Minister of Civil Aviation) ... material .... has been collected for bringing out advertisements in the print media highlighting the achievements of this ministry in the past eight months. ... The material as approved by the MCA is forwarded for necessary action in this regard''.

When contacted, Akaar's chief M Makhija refused to comment on the matter. Nor was any response forthcoming from Kumar's office.