All party leaders led by former Telugu Desam minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy met Krishnapatnam port CEO GJ Reddy on Thursday and set a 15 days deadline to resume operations at the container terminal which was unilaterally shut down.
Members of the TDP, BJP, Jana Sena, Congress, Communist parties and various trade unions representatives also staged protests for a brief while before attending a round table meeting with the Krishnapatnam port CEO on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters later, Somireddy accused minister Kakani Govardhan Reddy of illegally collecting tolls on the road to the port. He alleged that the port authorities had shut down the container terminal using this as an “excuse” to move operations to Tamil Nadu instead. “When we asked the port CEO about the terminal shutdown, he evaded answering and gave no clear response on when operations might resume,” said Somireddy.
He expressed anger that the land acquired from local farmers for the construction of 16,000 acres of SEZs around the port has now become useless. Somireddy claimed 10,000 jobs are at stake due to the terminal’s shutdown and the port is now only handling bulk cargo, harming the community. He expressed anger that promising industries were replaced by bulk cargo that is creating major dust pollution.
Somireddy alleged the Adani group had shifted the terminal out of fear of local MLA Govardhan Reddy. He accused authorities of allowing iron ore dumping in the container yard, limiting the port to dirty cargo rejected by Tamil Nadu. “We will not tolerate this injustice,” warned Somireddy.
The all-party delegation has given the port authorities a 15-day ultimatum to restore container operations or face an intensified protest movement.