The Hindu Business Line : Fertiliser unloading begins at New Mangalore Port

Mangalore, Aug. 4 The registered cargo handling workers, who are on strike at New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) since August 1, began unloading fertiliser from a vessel on Monday evening. However, they did not resume cargo operations on other ships.

The meeting convened by the Assistant Labour Commissioner on Monday with trade unions and the port management resolved to unload fertiliser cargo from a vessel considering the need for the commodity in Karnataka.

Making an appeal to the port management and the trade unions to settle the issue and resume cargo operations immediately, Mr M. Shekhar Pujari, President of the Association of New Mangalore Port Stevedores, said: “ Currently, discharge operation is in progress on the fertiliser vessel. But they have not resumed cargo operations in other ships that are berthed at the port. There are 12 ships at the berth and 29 vessels are waiting and expected to arrive.”

Stating that general cargo work handling has come to a standstill at the port, Mr Praveen Kumar, President of the Mangalore Steamer Agents’ Association, said that as there is no sign of any settlement being arrived at between the port management and the labour unions, most of the ship owners and charterers have diverted their ships to neighbouring ports. Some of the waiting ships are on the verge of being diverted to other ports.

CONTAINERS

He said that a container vessel is waiting at the anchorage and if the issue is not resolved soon, the owner of the ship may divert this container vessel also. If that happens, there is a danger of losing the container business, and the reputation of NMPT as an emerging container port will be at stake, he said.

“In view of the above, we appeal to the port labour unions and port management to take a practical and commercial decision as agreed and settled in the ports of Goa, Kochi and Vishakhapatnam, in the long-term interest of the exim trade and public at large,” he said.

With the implementation of the tribunal award, NMPT will be able to attract more traffic and be commercially competitive, Mr Praveen Kumar said.

Mr Pujari said that if the tribunal award is implemented, NMPT will have more number of gangs. With this, more ships and more cargoes can be handled to the benefit of the import-export trade and the port labourers.

It may be mentioned here that NMPT implemented the national industrial tribunal award on rationalisation of the manning scale and deployment of labour in the port on August 1. Opposing the implementation of the award, the registered cargo handling workers are on strike since August 1.

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