KoPT blamed for Haldia Dock impasse

1 October 2012

biswabrata goswami
HALDIA, 1 OCT: The Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) management has been accused of not having enough administrative accountability while dealing with private operators engaged at different berths in the Haldia Dock Complex for which the recent impasse due to the problems of labours and law and order have developed. The question which is already doing rounds in the shipping circle is whether the port management is biased towards the private operator working at berths other than two and eight. The problem first surfaced when a private operator working at non-mechanised berths threatened to retrench its worker, demanding the allocation of more cargo-vessels. “Instead of addressing the problem, the KoPT, meanwhile, has made its junior assistant manager a scapegoat by suspending him from his job based on the district intelligence report, to resolve the dispute,” a union leader said.