Ports strike continues, some hope in UP

LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI, JANUARY 19: While all port operations across the country continued to just about limp along despite the Army and Navy's...

LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI, JANUARY 19: While all port operations across the country continued to just about limp along despite the Army and Navy8217;s help for the second day today, some progress was seen in Uttar Pradesh on day 5 of the powermen8217;s strike there with the government sticking to its threat of dismissing8217; all workers and then offering to hold talks. Till late tonight, the Prime Minister was himself reviewing the progress on breaking the port strike, and the government explored the possibility of approaching the courts to declare the strike illegal since talks with the port unions were still going on.

At Mumbai, the country8217;s busiest port, services were badly affected, with agents expressing their inability to unload ships. Port sources said that at least 8 ships were waiting in the harbour for berthing. Small amounts of liquid cargo handling took place at Mumbai and certain other ports like Chennai and Calcutta. Thanks to the strike, general cargo meant for exports at the main ports, including Mumbai, was the most severely affected sector as loading and unloading activities had stopped.

In Mumbai, of the three vessels in the Indira docks, one with 800 tonnes of cargo left without unloading as the agents had not filed the necessary papers. Three oil tankers and one with chemicals were unloading at Butcher Island with the help of officers assisted by the coast guards and home guards. JNPT chairman M P Pinto said a tanker with edible oil was due later tonight while another two container vessels are also expected to dock in.

Four general cargo vessels berthed at the Kandla port were carrying food grains, soya and containers. Five more ships are waiting to be berthed, its Chairman said. Movement of coal vessels continued normally at Chennai port and authorities said two more tankers carrying oil products were expected to be berthed later on Wednesday. But all other traffic, including container movement, was at a complete standstill.

Petroleum, oil and crude POL imports remained unaffected at ports as it was not a labour-intensive task, port officials said. quot;Liquid cargo operations are normal but general cargo has been completely paralysed due to the strike,quot; an official said. quot;We have not handled any general cargo since the strike started,quot; he said.

In Uttar Pradesh, battlelines today hardened with the UP government dismissing all striking workers of the UP State Electricity Board UPSEB who did not report back to duty after the expiry of the last deadline, and getting officials of the National Thermal Power Corporation NTPC to man all UPSEB power stations. The state government, however, has still kept a window open for dialogue, and said that while the workers stood dismissed8217;, the actual process of serving termination notices would have to wait till further reports from the respective district administrations 8212; Chief Secretary Yogendra Narain said the government was willing to talk to the employees about everything except revoking the order trifurcating the UPSEB.

While the government, both in Lucknow and New Delhi, claimed that the power situation in UP had normalised completely, power trade unions claimed this was untrue. In Delhi, power minister Kumaramangalam said there was full availability of power in the state on the fifth day of the strike 8212; NTPC engineers were ensuring full generation from the UPSEB plant and the rest was being made up from the grid. He added that 700 engineers of the UPSEB had also rejoined work.

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Shailendra Dubey, leader of the employees union, however claimed in Lucknow that the government was presenting a wrong picture and the strike was near total. 8220;Our strike has crippled the distribution and generation of electricity and the situation is likely to worsen if the government continued to be tough.8221; The government has arrested a total of 5,078 powermen so far, and released 1,099 after they gave written undertakings saying they had nothing to do with the strike

The UP Powermen Action Committee spokesperson said that drinking water supply had been badly hit in at least 55 of the state8217;s 83 districts. Several areas in the state also reported blackouts for several hours.