HBT now faces conspiracy suit

Manish Jain,the chairman of KoPT,said the contractor has violated the agreement and is liable to pay penalty. “We will not allow the ABG-LDA group to uninstall its equipment and shift from Haldia,” Jain said.

He said the contractor first gave notice of stalling its operations at the berths,which handles cargo of industrial majors like Tata Steel and SAIL,on August 23. Thereafter the Calcutta High Court intervened and issued two directives on October 12 and 19. “The ABG has not abided by the directives of the High Court and has violated the terms of agreement. This issue will be raised on the November 2 hearing at the High Court,” Jain said.

The controversy centres around who is liable to pay the penalty since ABG claims that it had to pull out since the state had not provided it the security for operations and there were life threats on its officers.

Jain defended that the port authorities had moved the court asking security for ABG but when police was deployed at the berths there was no one to coordinate with the administration from ABG’s part. It had even written letters to the state chief secretary to provide security.

CEO of ABG Gurpreet Malhi said the company intended to operate and deposited Rs 17.5 lakh with the East Midnapore district administration for deployment of police. But the incident of abduction prompted them to take the decision of pulling out of Haldia. He,however,didn’t comment on KoPT’s denial to accept termination of agreement.

Earlier,KoPT had said the board has decided to invoke the exit clauses if ABG didn’t resume operations from October 19. Although ABG did not resume operations from October 19,the port authorities did not invoke the exit clauses since the court was negotiating the problems of the two parties.

Jain said the court guided both the port and the contractor to resolve the problems through discussions and to that end it has formed a three-member committee to look into the issues. The port was always eager to look into the problems of ABG. “If ABG continues operations,its reasons for losses can be further analysed and addressed,” Jain said. However,ABG made it clear that it has lost trust of the port’s initiatives of only forming committees and doing really nothing for its viable operation. But by no means it has defied any court order and nor does it intend to do so,Malhi had said. The court has so far observed that it has not got any clear reason as to why ABG-LDA should terminate the agreement.

Govt complains of labour law ‘violations’

Kolkata: The state Labour Department has complained to the Union Labour Ministry against ABG for its alleged violation of labour laws. “We have received complaints that 275 workers of the agency received text messages informing them that they have been laid off. We have heard their PF and ESI contributions were also not deposited with the proper authorities. I will speak to the Union Labour Minister too,” said state Labour Minster Purnendu Bose.

Meanwhile,some good news for investment climate

Eight banks and financial institutions with annual turnover of over Rs 500 crore have shown interest in procuring plots in the financial hub of Rajarhat-New Town after its deadline ended on Wednesday. The eight firms are UCO Bank,SBI,National Insurance Company Limited, Shreeyi,West Bengal Financial Corporation,WBIDFC,Allahabad Bank and UBI Bank,said Debashis Sen,chairman of HIDCO. “Two-three more institutions have sought some time to procure land. They said they could not hold the board meetings because of puja. We may float another notice to allow them to apply for land in the next phase,” Sen said.

In September ,HIDCO had sought Expression of Interest (EoI) from banks and financial institutions to procure plots measuring 80,000 square metre in the 25-acre financial hub after its initial EOI,floated in March,failed to generate enthusiasm. It then made certain changes in the EOI to attract the investments.

On Facebook,Mamata keeps mum on Haldia

On her Facebook wall,Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee did not mention anything on Haldia impasse on Thursday. Instead,she chose to attack the UPA over hike LPG cylinder price calling the UPA government “intolerable and irresponsible”. She made a fresh appeal to political parties to dislodge the UPA government saying,“time is running out”. Alleging that the CBI was being used for “political purposes”,she wrote: “CBI stands for Congress Bureau of Investigation,” echoing BJP president Nitin Gadkari.

In Melbourne,Governor says no rise in political crimes

Governor M K Narayanan on Thursday said that there has been no increase in political crimes in the state. “I don’t think there is any increase in political crime realistically,” Narayanan told PTI on the sidelines of an event in Melbourne. “Statistics are very difficult to debate about as per state police perceptions and with whatever I know,I don’t think it has gone out wild,” he said,adding that there was always a scope to improve the climate. “People are producing statistics and I can contest that,” he said.