PTI 
 
New Delhi, Oct 20: Ahead of the proposed merger of Air-India and Indian, Government on Thursday issued a stern warning to the staff of the two state-owned carriers to either perform or perish and announced the setting up of a Group of Ministers to finalise the alliance within this fiscal.

"Government will not remain a mute spectator to the goings on in both the carriers", Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel warned the employees across all levels, after receiving an Airbus A-319, the first of the 43 aircraft that Indian has ordered, at the IGI Airport here.

He said he was "personally not very happy with the way the two carriers are performing... Government support is only to an extent. Beyond this, the airlines would have to retain their standards of performance."

Besides Patel, the GoM, set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to finalise the path for the merger, would have as members Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Law Minister H R Bharadwaj, Tourism Minister Ambika Soni, Suresh Pachauri (Personnel), Prem Chand Gupta (Company Affairs), Santosh Mohan Deb (Public Enterprises) and Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, official sources said.

A formal notification is likely to be issued shortly, they said.

Earlier, Patel had said that the GoM would have four members -- Chidambaram, Bharadwaj, Ahluwalia and himself.

Patel said the GoM would work in a time-bound manner to finalise the roadmap for the merger and take the proposal to the Union Cabinet for its approval.