Mangalore: Boat Tragedy - NMPT Open for CBI Inquiry, says Chairman
Pics; Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)
Mangalore, Sep 20: Chairman of New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT), P Tamilvanan, reiterated that New Mangalore Port Trust was not at fault relating to an incident in which six fishermen went missing at sea, and another incident in which five fishermen had suffered injuries.
Like in some previous cases, in this case too, NMPT had been blamed for not showing humanitarian concern and refusing permission to the ill-fated boats to reach the shore through the port waters even in exigency.
Addressing a press conference at his office after chairing a port security committee meeting on Monday September 19, he claimed that no boat in distress as above had sought to get anchored at the port as claimed. “We have been following procedures as per directions. We do not have any records to prove that boats had sought emergency entry into the port waters. I am not aware about minister’ Krishna J Palemar’s demand for Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry. We are prepared for any kind of inquiry,” he clarified.
He said that the port officials came to know about the demand of the fishermen of the first boat on the morning of Tuesday last, and that by the time action was taken, the boat had moved towards old port. “There was communication problem. But, the second boat in question with seven fishermen on board never approached the port on Wednesday night as claimed, and there is no record to prove that they had called our control room,” he added.
Tamilvanan said that two boats, which approached the port authorities properly and produced documents, were allowed into the port on the day of the said tragedy and that boats had also been allowed entry into the port in the past. To obviate communication problems, some changes have been affected, and control room numbers have now been furnished to fishermen, he said.
Coast Guard commandant, Rajendra Singh Safal, said that he received call from Irfan, owner of the boat in distress, at 3 am on Thursday, but operation could not be launched immediately, as it was not possible to find the exact location of the boat. He said that Coast Guard thereafter requisitioned an aircraft from Kochi and added that in such cases, time will continue to be a constraint. He accused the fishermen of not following the past instructions to keep life jackets always with them. Observing that the boat in question did not have any life jackets, he opined that if jackets had been made available as instructed, lives could have been saved. Fisheries department deputy director, Suresh Kumar, also said that the fishermen in danger had contacted him only at 5.20 am on Thursday, and not before.
When one of the press persons pointed out that a police officer had got information about the tragedy at 10 pm on Wednesday, and that he suspected that the departments are trying to shirk from their responsibility, Tamilvanan stressed that the port, its staff or Central India Security Force personnel were not guilty of any lapses.