Port users to boycott advisory body meet tomorrow

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Our Correspondent
CHITTAGONG, Oct 25: All port users of the Chittagong Port have decided to boycott the much-talked about meeting scheduled to be held on October 27 if the government initiated advisory committee on port headed by shipping minister Shahjahan Khan.
The unanimous decision came from the meeting of the Port Users Forum held today with the CCCI president and ruling party MP MA Latif in the chair at the auditorium of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The meeting was attended by leaders from apex trade body Chittagong Chamber, apparel manufacturers and exporters association BGMEA, knitwear manufacturers and exporters association BKMEA, Bangladesh shipping agents association BSAA, C&F agents association, Shippers' Council of Bangladesh, master stevedores association BMSA, reconditioned vehicle importers association BARVIDA and private inland container depot owners association PICDA.
The government sponsored first meeting of the advisory committee for Chittagong Port is scheduled to be held at 10.00 am on October 27 at the Chittagong Circuit House conference hall.
The port users have highly appreciated deployment of the armed personnel in the port on October 13 and demanded of the government to arrange prolonged stay of the army there until the port regains its lost image at home and abroad.
"It is highly a welcome decision that the army has been deployed at a time when the country's prime maritime port was held hostage to a small group of corrupt bureaucrats of the shipping ministry and the Chittagong Port, political vested interest groups and non-working so-called labour leaders," MA Latif MP in his statement said.
Terming the 42-member advisory committee as a 'thick-headed and useless' one, the PUF leaders said the committee does not properly represent the port users and ultimately the consumers as a whole and such committee will never come out with positive suggestions and guideline for efficient management of the port.
"The committee has been formed with corrupt government officials and employees of the shipping ministry and port, bureaucrats, law enforcers, corrupt labour leaders and political touts in stead of port users. There is no justification of forming such a dull headed committee," the PUF statement said.
The meeting was addressed among others by CCCI senior vice president MA Salam, vice president SM Shafiul Huq, BGMEA first vice president Nasir Uddin Chowdhury, Nasir Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury of shippers' council, Sawkat Osman of BKMEA, Wasiur Rahman Chowdhury, AKM Aktar Hussain, Haji Ishaq of BARVIDA, Sultan Ahmed, Mahbubul Alam, Abdul Quiyum, Mahfuzul Huq Shah and Captain Shafi Chowdhury.
Meanwhile, the CPA authority has started distributing identity card to the dock workers of the port, a prolonged claim of the workers.
A total of 120 workers were issued ID cards at a brief function at the office of the director (security) of the port Lt Col Quamrul Islam. The function was attended by CPA director (traffic) Golam Sarwar and some CBA representatives of the port.
Officials said that the cards are being issued to some 3000 workers out of around 5500 workers employed by the private berth operators engaged in handling cargo at the GCB berths and the specialized container berths.