The IFFCO, Paradip has stopped production of DAP fertilizer since June 25 as plantation of the piled up fertilizers in the plant yard to the railway loading site have been stopped by a labour union led by Congress leader Bapi Sarkhel.
Such a shutdown situation developed in the Central PSU as 500 labourers belonging to the labour union Bhumiputra Multipurpose Cooperative Society (BMCOS) all of a sudden joined Bapi Sarkhel’s IFFCO labour Union. They didn’t resign from BMCOS before joining Sarkel’s union.
Due to halt in the transportation, a shortage of fertilsers in the markets of Odisha and outside has been marked. The IFFCO DAP is much in demand in markets across the country, sources said.
Though a joint meeting was held on July 2 by the Jagatsinghpur district administration, yet Bapi Sarkhel, one of the invitees, didn’t attend it citing death threat to his life as reason. However, he had sent his representative to the meeting. The meeting was attended by AIFFCO representative, ADM, ASP and SP of Jagatsinghpur and ASP and ADM of Paradip.
In yet another development, the whole cargo handling and transport operation of the Paradip Port has been shutdown since the wee hours of Sunday as a wildcat strike called by the Dumpers Association which is also led by Sarkhel.
As many as eight ships are now waiting for a berth in the port due to the strike. From reliable sources, it is learned that a cargo ship, MV Prabhu Gopal, carrying 51,000 metric tonne imported limestone from United Arab Emirates (UAE) berthed in the port on Sunday. Importer Jindal Steel and Power ltd appointed stevedoring company, Seaways Shipping (P) ltd for discharging cargo.
It is alleged that one of the dumpers deliberately hit a payloader of the stevedores working on the jetty and informed other dumpers working in the port, which belong to Bapi Sarkel-led Dumpers Union, to stop the work demanding higher compensation for the damage. The cargo operation in the port has stopped since then.
In this matter, Sarkhel was also called by the district and port administrations for an amicable settlement. But Sarkhel didn’t attend citing security issues. The cargo operation by JSPl was carried out under heavy security protection by local police and CISF personnel as the newly appointed stevedoring company’s general manager was threatened by some unknown goons for accepting the stevedoring job for the JSPl.