Impasse ends at Paradip Port

The week-long deadlock over cargo handling at Paradip Port in Odisha ended today after successful talks between Jagatsinghpur district administration and representatives of various stakeholders, who agreed to resume normal stevedoring operations from tomorrow.
The decision to end the strike by Paradip Port Stevedores' Association (PPSA) and other outfits was reached at a meeting convened by Jagatsinghpur District Collector B K Upadhyaya as part of an effort to end the impasse.
Pressident of PPSA and representatives of nine other organisations were present at the meeting.
"It was a good meeting. Both sides adopted a flexible approach and it was agreed that stevedoring operations at the port which were hit due to the strike for the last few days would become normal from tomorrow morning," Upadhyaya said.

It was also decided at the meeting that the port authorities would not go ahead with cancellation of license of the striking stevedoring operators.
The impasse at the port had surfaced recently over handing over of stevedoring job to a particular private shipping and logistics company from outside Odisha which is not a member of PPSA.

The PPSA had described the move as a conspiracy.
PPSA President Mahimananda Mishra had said that the 10 associations on strike will sit together to prepare a roadmap and meet the state government and the central government to resolve the issue.
Mishra said the private firm which was assigned the cargo handling work by a steel company, would sublet the work to a panel of stevedores on rotation and all stakeholders would cooperate.

Leaders of All India Stevedores Federation, who also visited the port area, opined that the strike should be called off but the discussion should continue to arrive at a permanent solution.