Responding swiftly to a letter from External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder sanctioned a sum of Rs 3,56,700 from Punjab CM Relief Fund, on humanitarian grounds, to facilitate the return of a Gurdaspur resident from a ship he is stuck in at Sharjah Port.
The amount has been released against pending wages of Vikram Singh, who has refused to leave the ship along with five other Indian nationals on account of non-payment of their salaries for the past several months.
In a letter to Capt Amarinder, Swaraj said the Indian Consulate in Dubai, which had been asked to inquire into the matter, had informed her Ministry that Vikram and the others were stuck in ‘Sharjah Moon’ ship, owned by a Pakistani national’s M/s Alco Shipping, Sharjah. The Consulate said that the sailors had not been paid their salaries for about 6-12 months and the owner of the ship was refusing to cooperate in the matter despite the best efforts of the Consulate. Swaraj said while the Consulate was helping the sailors and was willing to pay their return air fares, they did not have any provision for payment of their outstanding wages. She thus sought the State Government’s help in this regard, requesting payment of the pending wages on humanitarian grounds, a spokesperson of the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said.
The spokesperson said Swaraj had assured of Vikram’s repatriation, at the earliest, once the state government makes the payment against his pending wages.