Karnataka - Mangalore   

Privatisation of container terminals opposed

Staff Correspondent

It is likely to pose a threat to national security: union

MANGALORE: Bharatiya Port and Shipyard Mazdoor Mahasangh, affiliated to the Bharat Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), has opposed the move by the Union Government to privatise container terminals at ports.

A decision to this effect was taken at the national executive committee meeting of the mahasangh here recently. Such a move to hand over terminals to multinational companies is likely to pose a threat to national security, according to the mahasangh.

U.S.Government

A press release from M. Jagadiswara Rao, national general secretary of the mahasangh, here on Wednesday, said that even the U.S. Government had refused to hand over its container ports to a Dubai-based company on grounds of security. Mr. Rao regretted that the Centre had ignored this fact while coming up with such a proposal.

The meeting also opposed a move to either privatise or open a joint venture for Hindustan Shipyard Ltd. (HSL), Visakhapatnam. Noting that productivity at HSL had improved for the better and that its order books were good, Mr. Rao said the Government should immediately clear a revival package for HSL. According to Mr. Rao, privatisation was not the solution.

The mahasangh also urged the Centre to set up a bipartite wage negotiation committee for ports and shipyards in the country ahead of the next wage revision.

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