Ten policemen injured in a clash with contract workers on Thursday at the Adani group-owned Gangavaram Port in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh. The workers were insisting on laying siege to the port.
Labour unions had called a bandh on Thursday in support of their demand for the reinstatement of sacked port workers and payment of minimum wages of Rs 36,000. The Left-led unions have been protesting for the past one and half months.
Apart from reinstatement of the sacked workers and minimum wages, they were agitating for a written assurance on their increment, death benefits and one time settlement.
Apprehending trouble, a large number of police personnel were deployed for the “chalo Gangavaram port” programme where union members marched towards the main gate carrying flags of various Opposition parties including Left, TDP and Jana Sena.
The protesting workers, who outnumbered the police, managed to cross the iron fence alongside the port even as the police were trying to stop them. In the ensuing melee, many of the protestors, along with the cops, were injured. The CI of Gajuwaka sustained injuries when his leg was caught in a barbed wire.
The police arrested a number of union leaders in the aftermath of the clash.
The Gangavaram port is a minor port set up on a stretch of 1,800 acres of land originally acquired by the state government for RINL’s Visakhapatnam steel plant. It has the strategic advantage of being the gateway for the steel plant.
The YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government sold 10.4 per cent equity share in the port to the Adani group in mid 2021 for Rs 120 per share at a total value of Rs 644 crore. The deal came under censure as the state government did not go through a competitive bidding process as required under the Centre’s disinvestment guidelines.
Earlier in June this year, workers had struck work demanding revocation of the suspension of two employees. The police had to enter the port premises to control the situation and arrested seven people.