District Collector M.G. Rajamanickam’s order banning the parking of trailers along the Container Terminal Road has sparked off a confrontation, with the trailer workers decrying the move as “undemocratic”.
The Trade Union Coordination Committee is planning to challenge the charges filed against 40 trailers for violating the parking ban.
Fine slapped in this connection also remains unpaid. The Collector had banned parking a day after another accident claimed a life last week.
While directing the Motor Vehicles Department and the police to strictly enforce the ban, the district Collector also gave a week’s ultimatum to the Cochin Port Trust and DP World to provide parking facilities.
The coordination committee has lodged a memorandum against the ban at the District Collector’s office. Its general convener Charles George complained of not being able to either meet the Collector in person or get in touch with him over phone.
Mr. Rajamanickam, however, said the safety of the public was of paramount importance to him and that there was nothing left for him to do to help find a solution to the trailer workers’ demand for parking space.
“Already several lives have been lost on the stretch, and no one can give it back. I have had enough talks with the CPT and DP World. Let the workers now deal with them and find a solution,” he said.
The coordination committee has scheduled a meeting for Monday in which a final decision on holding an indefinite strike in protest against the absence of parking space is likely to be finalised.
“People who impose the ban should also tell us where these 40-feet long trailers numbering about 2,000 should be parked. It is a shame that the CPT, DP World and the State government could not provide as basic a facility as a parking yard for a project of the scale of the Container Transshipment Terminal,” said Mr. George.
