The panic that the leakage of chlorine has created on July 14 in Mumbai Port premises could be a wake-up call, but it has not failed to ring home the message loud and clear for everyone: ad hocism as a rule could not lead us anywhere.

Not only such incidents expose lack of preparedness on the part of the
agencies to deal with the eventualities, the mess that they have
accumulated invariably lead to blame game between different agencies
concerned with handling and storage of hazardous and other cargo at
ports.

While major ports, many of them are sitting on such cargo for years,
blame the Customs department for the delay, the Customs have own reasons
to explain their way of working with such consignments. Exim players,
on the other hand, point out that ad hoc and arbitrary decisions on the
part of Customs come in the way of clearance of their cargo. Due to
this, while some parties abandon their cargo, others go for litigations,
which usually take years to settle.

Either way, the consignments get piled up at ports. More importantly, as
the cargo is an important revenue earning item for the port and other
law enforcement agencies, none of them take a decision for its early
disposal. The responses from shipping ministry are also not far from ad
hoc. Even though it has collected details of unclaimed cargo lying at 12
major ports for more than 60 days in December last year, the ministry
has not taken any decision on it till date. The list has mentioned
Kandla as having a consignment lying at the port since 1982! It also
noted that Mumbai has 4191 lot of various types of cargo lying in the
port for more than 60 days.

Following the Mumbai incident, a ministry circular issued to port trusts
on July 14 is another telling example. It reads: “It is, therefore,
directed that all the dangerous and highly inflammable goods need to be
handled and stored by observing safe handling procedures as per the IMTG
Code. and ensure all safety norms in and around the storage area. Any
goods of this nature lying in the port premises beyond the period should
be disposed in the manner specified under Section 62 of the MPT act.

Source: The Economic India Times

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