A trade union of the Trinamul Congress stopped docking of foreign ships with “non-essential goods” at the Haldia port over fear of Covid-19’s spread.

On Wednesday, temporary and permanent dock hands of the union led by Haldia municipality chairman Shyamal Adak made it clear that they would not allow “foreign ships carrying non-essential commodities” to dock at the inner jetty. Ships that require its cargo to be unloaded by cranes generally dock at the inner jetty.

“The port’s outer jetty is where ships with gas and oil dock. These carriers are unloaded through pipelines and require very few workers. So, they have no problem with that,” said a port official on Thursday, adding that barely one or two ships had been let into the port since Tuesday owing to the shortage of workers.

“Normally, we let in up to 10 or 12 ships per day at both the jetties. Now, 30 ships are stranded at sea outside our port,” the official added.

The workers said they would not service foreign carriers laden with non-essentials and claimed oil and gas were the only essential commodities brought this week.

“We object to our workers being exposed to this dangerous disease. That is why we are objecting to foreign and non-essential ships,” Adak said on Friday.

This classification, however, is formally made only by the Haldia port authorities, who claimed on Thursday that among the 30 ships on wait was a carrier shipping a vital chemical essential for the MCPI unit in Haldia.

“We have informed the district administration about the problem. The shipping ministry had already termed the port an essential service because we have trains from here to ship vital commodities to places like Nepal and Bhutan,” said Haldia general manager (marine), Udayan Roy.

“Further, if coal is not allowed in, then steel plants will collapse. The workers’ definition of essential commodities is not at all accurate, even at these times,” Roy added.

_There are 18 berths at the Haldia Dock Complex. After the lockdown was announced, ships carrying petroleum products and thermal coal (which goes to power plants) were still being handled, occupying only four of them.The port authority has persuaded the union to add container ship to its “essential items” list. Moreover, a ship carrying paraxylene (raw material for MCPI plant at Haldia) and one carrying coking coal (for steel plants) are expected to be handled soon.

“Container usually carries a lot of items, some of which go to the pharmaceutical industry or even newspapers. It needs to be handled. Moreover, dealing in containers is not people-intensive. We also have to be mindful that industries which are essential to the economy and allowed by the government to operate should get raw materials,” a port official said.

He added that all temporary and permanent workers were being given World Health Organisation-certified safety equipment to carry out their duties.

On Thursday, East Midnapore district magistrate Partha Ghosh met workers and port officials. “The supply of petrol and LPG is still on. We are trying to figure out the classification of essential items soon,” Ghosh said.