Condemning the Centre's move to implement the Major Port Authorities Act, members of the Tuticorin Port Trust Democratic Staff Union staged demonstration led by its president, S. Balakrishnan here on Wednesday.
Twelve major ports were being made operational by the Central government across India under the Major Port Trust Act since 1963. But, the Centre is making efforts to privatise such major ports. Since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power at Centre, strenuous efforts were being made to “corporatise” the port sector by replacing the existing Major Port Trust Act with the Major Port Authorities Act. The bill to implement this Act against the interest of employees of major ports was placed in Parliament on December 16 last, said R. Russell, national secretary, Water Transport Workers’ Federation of India, who took part in the agitation.
The Union cabinet also approved the draft Major Port Authorities Bill in 2016 to give autonomy to the 12 major ports. Much to the dislike of the employees and officials, the new Act named after the Major Port Authorities would pave way for selling and leasing out lands owned by the major ports and also invest the funds of these ports in private banks against the existing practice of investing it in nationalised banks, he said.
Hence, the Ministry should drop this move, he said.
