Excise Minister Damodar Rout on Sunday alleged that a group of influential people sponsored by the Central Government has hatched a high profile conspiracy to ruin the glorious Paradip Port.
Rout said the port, which has received the Golden Peacock National Quality Award for the year 2014 and is the second among the Major Ports in India, is going through a bad period. The State has no chance to know about the affairs of the port as non-Odia people are running it, he added.
He said there was a waiting period for ships for nine to 12 days for berthing and around 20 vessels were waiting at the anchorage at the port and a similar situation was also prevailing at the Visakhapatnam Port too. But since last one month, there is no waiting of ships at the Paradip Port and berths are lying vacant unlike the Visakhapatnam, Dhamra and Gangabharam Ports.
“It shows that the traffic of the Paradip Port has been reduced substantially, which is a very alarming indicator for our port,” said Rout.
He alleged that an influential group of the Centre is out to increase the Adani-owned Dhamra Port’s business by sidelining the interest of the Paradip Port.
He said around 1,200 workers from different unions are engaged at the Paradip Port for more than 40 years for manual unloading of wagons. Now, the port authorities have planned to use machines for unloading which would affect the workers’ livelihood and create labour unrest.
He said the Central Government has formed the port’s Trust Board in a hurried manner and appointed four BJP leaders who have no connection with the port before without appointing a member from the chamber of commerce unlike before.
Dr Rout also alleged that only 22 per cent local people have been appointed in the Paradip Oil Refinery instead of giving employment to 80 per cent of them. “These two issues show how much the Centre is ‘conscious’ about the interests of Odisha,” Rout quipped.
He also attacked the Indian Oil Corporation limited (IOCl) for not holding a single RPDAC meeting within 10 years.C