State Govt asks Centre to cut KPT area to size

A top government official described the Centre’s initial reaction as “positive”. The State Government had been asked to send more details, like the legal formalities required to implement the proposal, he said.

The Government’s case is that KPT owns and exercises control over an area of 324 square km, but behaves as if its only responsibility is running the port, maintaining the related facilities and its own residential colony.

This attitude was the root cause of “so-called lack of co-ordination” between KPT and the State, which had led to huge loss of life and property in and around Kandla during the cyclone, the government has conveyed to the Centre.

It is pointed out that even Union Home Minister L K Advani, after his visit to Kandla, had expressed “distress” over this lack of co-ordination, and announced that the Centre would work out an arrangement to eliminate this bottleneck.

According to the official, the State proposal, if accepted by the Centre, would require a resolution by KPT, an amendment to the Major Ports Act, which is passed by Parliament, and a notification by the State Government, constituting a notified area committee.

Besides creation of a notified area committee, the State Government has suggested that a deputy collector and a deputy superintendent of police should be posted in the downsized KPT area. The officers would be under the administrative control of the State Government, but paid by KPT, he said.

Interestingly, the official admitted that there was truth in the KPT claim that they did not get advance warning of the cyclone from the Meteorological Department. But, he said, the State Government had, as a matter of abundant caution, sounded a warning in all coastal areas, including Kutch, on June 8.

The district administration had informed KPT about the measures they were supposed to take but, apparently, the trust ignored it. “They did nothing. Agreed that most of the salt pans were not easily accessible and evacuation was difficult. But the least they could do was to send out a jeep fitted with a loudspeaker. They did not do even this little”, the official said.

In his opinion, KPT could not escape blame for the deaths of salt workers by saying that they had only leased out land for salt pans. “Going by this logic, tomorrow all municipalities, which now have a constitutional status, or other local authorities, can say they have no responsibility for such a tragedy taking place in their areas”, he said.

The official said there were several statutory authorities in the State and also private industries. “They all did what we advised them to do, but not KPT, although it was a crisis situation. They are always highly conscious of their autonomous status”, the official said.

The notified area committee would also take care of the development needs of the area, the official said, adding KPT raised revenue by way of improvement charges and transfer fee, but paid little attention to the needs of the people, although there was no municipality, panchayat or any other local authority. They even refused to give land to the State Government for constructing a bus stand, he added.