Goemkarponn desk
VASCO: Urban Development Minister Milind Naik on Wednesday said that the port has to function for the sake of employees and pensioners.
Naik however said that it did not mean that the port should handle polluted cargo and that pollution of every cargo should be controlled.
Naik was speaking to reporters alongside a function where around 80 beneficiaries were given the laadli laxmi sanction letters
The minister when questioned about the mining issue said that the port once was fully functional and dependent on mining but since mining ban had diversified to coal handling.
“The port has a lot of employees and pensioners to take care of and that now the main business of the port was coal handling,” he said.
While people are up in arms against coal handling at Mormugao Port Trust, the State government appears to be in no mood to relent and stop the unloading of coal at the port.
In this who wins is Urban Development Minister Milind Naik, who lives a few kilometres from MPT and has his company registered with the port trust as a stevedore (including coal).
M N Construction handles stevedoring – loading and unloading of ships that arrive at a port. The minister has often rejected this claim and as such this is the first time his involvement with the MPT works has come to the fore.
A RTI reply given to Congress leader Sankalp Amonkar by MPT has said that M N Constructions has registered as a stevedore in MPT. “The name of the proprietor or owner of the M N Constructions is Milind Sagun Naik,” the reply said.