Karnataka   

Unloading of urea begins at NMPT

MANGALORE: There has been a partial thaw in the standoff between the management of the New Mangalore Port Trust and its striking cargo-handling workers. The two parties on Monday agreed to postpone their negotiations while immediately allowing the unloading of 33,000 tonnes of imported urea that was idling aboard ‘M.V. Arcadia Progress’ since the start of the strike last Wednesday.

The decision to unload the cargo was taken after a marathon five-hour meeting between the workers’ union leaders and the management under the arbitration of Assistant Labour Commissioner of the Union Government A.L. Kamble.

Unloading of urea began at around 7 p.m., less than an hour after the talks concluded. The fertilizer is meant for the 10 fertilizer-starved districts: Hassan, Mandya, Davangere, Mysore, Shimoga, Haveri, Belgaum, Hospet, Chikmagalur and Hubli. “We have agreed to unload the ship to illustrate that the workers of this port are not against the farmers of this State,” said the national vice-president of the Indian Trade Union Congress N.M. Adyanthaya.

Tension prevailed for some time during the day on the port premises after the port management threatened to unload the urea with the help of workers hired from outside under police protection.

In addition to the Central Industrial Security Force there was a heavy deployment of local police. The situation attained normality after the partial success of the talks. However, port authorities and union leaders stressed that an “exception” had been made in the case of the urea-laden vessel. “This should not be construed as the resolution of the dispute between the striking workers and the port management,” said a union leader associated with the Hind Mazdoor Sabha, who did not wish to be quoted.

The daily traffic bulletin of the port, a copy of which is available with The Hindu, revealed that there are presently 14 ships biding their time in the high seas off the Mangalore coast and waiting for permission to anchor at the NMPT harbour. The president of Mangalore Steamer Agents’ Association Praveen Kumar also claimed that a few ships bound for the city have moved to other ports owing to the trouble.

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