Marine crew prevent tankers from entering Mangalore Port

MANGALORE, DECEMBER 20: It was a dramatic scene at the New Mangalore Port Trust NMPT at Panambur, 12 km from here, on Sunday when more t...

MANGALORE, DECEMBER 20: It was a dramatic scene at the New Mangalore Port Trust NMPT at Panambur, 12 km from here, on Sunday when more than a hundred flotilla crew of the Marine Department were chased by Coast Guards and arrested when they entered Port Trust launches without authority and prevented the berthing of oil tanker Jagapriya.

According to NMPT sources, the flotilla crew struck work around 6 am on Sunday protesting against the postponement of a meeting, convened by NMPT authorities regarding payment of overtime double rate, which was scheduled to be held on Sunday.

Authorities tried in vain to convince crew members that the meeting had been postponed to December 27 to enable the trustees representing labour to attend the meeting.

But the agitating marine department personnel said that there were as many as 280 marine personnel at the Port and the authorities had put a ceiling limit of Rs 2,800 for overtime though such ceiling limits did not exist in other ports. They charged that the NMPT authorities had wilfully postponed Sunday8217;s meeting in order to scuttle their demand and were merely using the name of the trustees representing labour at NMPT as an excuse.

When there was no convincing the flotilla crew, authorities put their contingency plan into operation and marine officers with the help of the Central Industrial Security Force CISF and Coast Guards brought in the oil tanker for berthing in two launches of the Port Trust.

Sources said the agitating marine crew the boarded two launches of the Trust and blocked the entrance waters to the Port. When a collision between the POL tanker and an LPG carrier Jagavayu became imminent, the Coast Guards, on directions from NMPT officials, chased the agitating workers through the sea waters and took them into custody.

CISF Deputy Commandant H R Gupta told The Indian Express that the authorities acted when the marine department personnel blocked the movement of ships at the Port and were subsequently arrested on Sunday evening.Meanwhile, according to Panambur police, as many as 113 crew members have been arrested and handed over to the local police. However, charges are yet to be framed against the arrested persons who were brought to the police station at around 7.45 pm on Sunday night, the police said.