CITU condemns Centre's NMP

Visakhapatnam: The representatives of the United Port and Dock Employees Union demanded that the Major Ports Authority Act and the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) should be stopped with immediate effect.

A resolution was passed unanimously towards this direction in the general body meeting held here on Sunday.

Speaking on the occasion, Union honorary president VS Padmanabha Raju opposed transforming major ports into landlord ports. He said major ports in the country were facing many challenges because of allowing private ports in their neighbourhood by offering them a slew of incentives.

During the meeting, the union representatives demanded speedy execution of a new unconditional wage agreement. They said they were against the sale of port berths Wq-6,7,8 and Eq-6,7. And strongly opposed the change/contraction of labour laws which they mention was an unwelcome move.

The committee decided to mount pressure on the Central government to pay the bonus immediately as per the old contract. Further, the committee discussed the issues like privatising the port stadium and Kalyanamandapam.

Representatives raised an objection to the proposal of privatising such facilities.

As a part of the meeting, a new committee was elected and the list included VS Padmanabha Raju as honorary president, D Samba Murthy as president, K Satyanarayana as general secretary, Ch Trinatha Rao as working president.

KS Kumar, Shobhan Kumar, Appalaraju, Someswara Rao elected as vice presidents and 23 members as secretaries nominated unanimously.

GVMC CPM floor leader B Ganga Rao, CITU union secretary B Jagan and union members participated in the programme.