Dr.P.K.Chandran, H109/8, Mahatma Gandhi Road, 7th Avenue, Besant Nagar, Chennai-600090. |
| Opinion Poll | Posted By: Chandran Peechulli on:5/14/2008 4:53:46 AM |
The
national maritime administration (directorate-general of shipping), is found to
have their own priorities of vested interests, neglecting to protect the
interest of the very high risk contingent of seafarers. Heartlessly, inflicted
injuries to a survivor of the sunken- vessel, by causing unreasonable delay,
literally denied, holding up issue of
COC NCV Class IV; till date of this publication, thereby said seafarer is at
mercy, put into hardships of unemployment. The survivor was picked-up from the
sunken vessel, after three long days in deep-seas, by the Indian coastguard.
Applaud to the disciplined, committed and dedicated work-force of Indian Coast
Guard. Aftermath of the mental and physical trauma, of the survivor, the
concerned MMD officials, ought to have behaved in a socially responsible
manner, with a human touch, enquiring his welfare but instead harassing and
humiliating the Seafarer, NCV 2/ENGR.,Gopal Chandra Paul, inflicting injuries. Such
atrocities cannot be tolerated. A good heart can only gauge the unbearable
internal pain, starvation owing to un-employment for want of valid COC as held
by him earlier. He has all along served as watch-keeper of small and medium
vessel’s power plant, with vast experience over three decades as watch-keeper,
a veteran on coastal/NCV. Fair and Just Policies, towards Justice and
welfare to seafarers, turning into a distance dream. Mariners inducted into the department,
serving in the directorate general of shipping, knowing very well that nothing
will happen to them, even if they intentionally, corruptly ignore fair
practice. Remedy of this lies with accountability of the government
machinery. Seafarers, look forward for transparent dealing. Owing to
discrimination in MMD services, a small section of seafarers derive the
benefits while much larger section of seafarers, pay the costs. Many are living silent deaths. If ‘curse’
has a real meaning, one has to answer for their own deeds. Is there a system in
place to protect active seafarers from sailing in war risk area?
While in this dynamic, national and
international environmental outlook, considering safety and health of seafarers, the challenge to
policymakers is to ensure, instilling the best fair practices, in policy and
procedures, terms and conditions of employment for both officers and ratings,
are comparatively logical, reasonable and fairly on board, domestic and
foreign-going vessels. Thus, ensure ‘Seafarers’ employed by companies
experience favourable terms and conditions of employment and this should remain
a common concern for respective national maritime administrations and both INSA
(Indian National Ship-owners
Association) and the relevant unions(RE-UNFAIR Pay-scales in the name of non-promotional categories, while a
floating staff engineer thrown out of service, like a fish out of water, from a
government of India enterprise(SCI), for no fault of his but for blood-pressure
(H.T.), in 1994, was neither awarded medical disability nor VRS nor a fair
final settlement of accounts, as yet. High time a feasibility study for
outsourcing, “services to seafarers”, may be considered.
Dr.Chandran Peechulli,Ph.D;F.I.E.(India), Ex.Chief Engineer(Marine),G.M.(Tech).