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Oct. 25: Mechanised cargo handler Haldia Bulk Terminals (HBT) has filed an FIR alleging assault on one of its workers by retrenched labourers, the complaint coming a few days after Calcutta High Court ordered police and the East Midnapore administration to ensure safety at Haldia port.
The Trinamul-backed dock labourers’ union and many of the sacked HBT employees today started an indefinite dharna on the road leading to the port’s main entrance demanding that the retrenched workers be reinstated. The district authorities said no action could be taken against them as the demonstration was held beyond 100 metres of the dock complex, the no-protest limit set by the court.
In the FIR lodged on Tuesday with Haldia police, HBT said: “One of our workers, Sunil Das, was attacked by a mob of around 100 people consisting of our retrenched workers along with unidentified people at Ranichak.”
Das said he was pandal-hopping on Ashtami (Monday) when he was attacked.
A senior police officer said a case had been started.
Subdivisional police officer Amitava Maity said: “It has been decided that six police camps will be set up inside and outside the Haldia Dock Complex. As soon as HBT deposits the money, we will start our work.”
HBT sources said the police had told the company that Rs 17,45,000 would be needed for the security arrangements. “We will deposit the money tomorrow,” a source said.
Utpal Bera, the general secretary of the INTTUC-affiliated dock labourers’ union, said 450 workers of Five Star, the company whose contract HBT has terminated, had joined the dharna.
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