The Calcutta High Court has criticised the West Bengal police administration for lack of initiative to address the law and order issues dogging Haldia Port for nearly a month.
Operations have been stalled at the privately operated Haldia Bulk Terminals (HBT)-run mechanised berths since September 25, due to alleged “lawlessness” at the dock complex. HBT — a joint venture of private sector operator ABG-LDA and Kolkata Port Trust — sought the Court’s intervention on the issue.
In an interim order on Friday, Justice Dipankar Datta expressed “shock” at the “utter apathy of the local administration” to respond to any of the complaints lodged by the petitioners.
The Court had taken an exception to the fact that not a single senior police officer visited the dock complex, despite repeated complaints of disruption in operations (by labour unions).
While the West Bengal in its disposition before the Court claimed that the “situation prevailing at the HDC is absolutely normal,” the court felt that given the state of affairs (of police administration), “it is difficult for the Court to accept that the situation in berths 2 and 8 (both operated by HBT) are absolutely normal.” In fact, the court has not ruled out the possibility of “persons with interest of their own” to have derailed HBT.
“The industry must be saved, if those associated with it are to survive,” he said. The significance of the observation lies in the argument of ruling Trinamool Congress-affiliated Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress (INTTUC), which was one of the respondents to the writ petition submitted by HBT. “The writ petition has been filed in gross abuse of the process of law. Despite there being no cause of action, the Court has been approached to camouflage the misdeeds of the petitioners (HBT),” INTTUC argued. The union was opposing retrenchment of 275 excess workers, whom HBT was allegedly once forced to absorb.