The BJP has decided to launch a massive movement to rejuvenate the Kolkata and Haldia Port system and liberate it from the grip of corrupt vested interests that had in connivance with some influential politicians from Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress been sucking the Port’s economy dry for the past several years.
launching a frontal attack against those responsible for the gradual degradation of the country’s only riverine port system, BJP MP Chandan Mitra on Thursday said, “the BJP will launch a major movement against the vested interest who have been earning huge profits at the cost of the Port’s exchequer” and “in utter violation of the law of the land”.
In its endeavour to “rejuvenate and revive” the Kolkata and Haldia Ports, the BJP will work alongside all the labour unions “because if the Port is saved, the workers will be saved and if the workers are protected Bengal will be saved” Mitra added.
Coming down heavily on the powers that be for conceiving “absurd schemes” for the revival of the Port, he said “instead of working on illogical and absurd schemes like constructing harbours at the sand-heads and then transporting the cargo to the main port plans should be drawn up for large-scale dredging” of the shipping channel so that cargo-handling capacities of these ports could be increased.
Speaking at a Port workers’ union meeting on Wednesday Mitra had said how Kolkata could cater to the large hinterland comprising Bihar, Jharkhand, North-East, Nepal, Bhutan etc. The Kolkata Port system which was running on profit till a few years ago was currently incurring huge losses.
The sagging condition of the twin ports had put the career of thousands of workers and about 30,000 pensioners at stake. The BJP is expecting to enlist the support of this huge workforce of the Port area in its attempt to capture power in 2016 elections.
launching a scathing attack on a “particular company” that was looting the Port for several years in connivance with a “particular political party” of the State, Mitra said how “some vested interests are making huge profits in cargo handling operation” giving almost nothing to the Government. “This will not be allowed to go on for infinity” he said demanding “a transparent system.”
The Pioneer had earlier run stories on how a few cargo-handling companies were minting hundreds of crores violating the MPTS Act with the help of their virtual nominees in the advisory board of the Kolkata Port Trust. The Board had since been dissolved by the Shipping Ministry.
Congratulating Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari for promptly taking up the issue and ordering tendering out of the cargo-handling operations, Mitra said the BJP would work towards achieving Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of a corruption-free India.
Meanwhile, a number of ex-servicemen and about 120 workers of the Trinamool Congress from Jibontala in South 24 Parganas joined the BJP in presence of Mitra. “We have come to realise that the BJP is the only party with a clear image and true nationalistic feelings,” Ramzan Sheikh, the Trinamool town secretary of Jibantala who led his 120 followers to the BJP, said.