Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, Apr 28: Crew members of Andaman’s passenger ship M V Chowra, today refused to sail the ship after embarkation of 285 passengers onboard, demanding immediate payment of their pending salaries.
Crew members alleged that the SCI hasn’t paid their salary since last three months and demanded immediate release of salary.
According to details, due to dispute between the management and ship crew members, nearly 285 passengers were made to suffer for nearly four long hours.
As per report this is not the first time when the Crew members did so, earlier on July 15 2014, crew members of the same ship refused to sail alleging pathetic condition of ship and demanding some urgent repairs.
As per shipping schedule, the ship was scheduled to sail for Campbell Bay via all ports in South from Haddo Wharf of Port Blair at 8.00 AM.
According to sources, as per the directions of the Chief Officer of the ship the CISF started the embarkation process at 6am and by 7:50am the CISF completed the process. By 08:00 am the MMD surveyor also completed the survey and the pilot was onboard at 08:30 am but just before sailing crew members started their protest.
When the CISF got the information of the protest the Sub-Inspector of CISF, Mr Raveendran immediately informed the Directorate of Shipping Services and after that immediately the Assistant Director of Shipping Services, Mr Anand Paul Singh and Deputy Director, Mr Sahadevan reached the spot to sort-out the protest. The senior officers of Shipping Services however somehow convinced the crew members and by 12.00 noon the ship sailed for Campbell Bay.
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