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Kathmandu,Monday January 24, 2000 Magh 10th, 2056.
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Cargo movement stalled at TIA
-By a Post Reporter
KATHMANDU, Jan 23 Most
foreign-bound cargo has been left unattended at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) for
the last three days as workers at the Customs godown continue to protest the government
decision to issue entry passes through a private organisation.
Customs union today
threatened to launch a nationwide strike unless the government withdraws its decision
immediately.
On January 10, TIA officials
announced that the entry passes would be issued by Nepal Freight Forwarding Association
(NEFFA), making a departure from the time-honoured tradition which allowed all companies
operating at the cargo terminal to use their own Identity Card (ID).
According to Biplav Katuwal,
chief of Nepal Transit and Warehousing Corporation in Sinamangal which houses the export
cargo at Godown-3, the decision to grant authority to NEFFA was a fresh initiative aimed
at tightening security at the Customs.
According to Sabitri
Rajbhandari, Chief Customs Administrator, the loss due to the strike has been minimal
“since it is not a cargo season. There is a slack season for Pashmina exports.
Neither is it the time for garment exports.” She said the strike affected the godown
only on Saturday and Sunday, “when the cargo flow is low in any case”.
“This is basically
NEFFA’s concern,” she said. “But I will look into the matter tomorrow.”
Warehouse’s Katuwal
said the activity at the godown had almost come to a standstill in the past three days
“except for the dispatch of a few cargoes that were already in the godown”. The
workers, however, insisted that no cargo had moved in the past three days.
The striking workers said
they would continue their strike until TIA withdraws its decision. There are around 500
workers employed at Godown-3.
“If we are to carry
passes issued by the NEFFA, then they (NEFFA) should first ensure that all the workers
working in cargo companies are made permanent as per the Labour Law,” said Kedar
Dahal, General Secretary of Nepal Customs and Airport Workers Union (NCAWU) that is
spearheading the strike.
According to Dahal, the
workers at the cargo companies are all temporary staff. Dahal also threatened that the
union will wage a strike at Customs points throughout the country if their demand is not
met by tomorrow. The NEFFA pass is supposed to go into effect on January 24.
“We have our members in
the Customs throughout the country,” said Dahal. “All of us will stop working in
all these Customs points if our demand is not met by tomorrow.”
Dahal said businesses had
suffered heavy losses since the godown has come to a standstill and aircraft has been
returning empty. “So far 200 tonnes of cargo packages have been sent back because of
the strike,” he said. Repeated attempts to
contact the TIA General Manager and the NEFFA officials failed today.
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