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NT Bureau
Chennai, Apr 20:

        The Water Transport Workers Federation of India is holding its seventh national conference in Chennai today and tomorrow to discuss the various issues affecting the interests of the workers of the water transport industry.

        'We would use the conference as a platform to urge the Central government to initiate speedy steps to resolve our demands such as wage revision, better working conditions, proper pension regulations etc,' said the general secretary of the federation Subhash Chakrabarthy while addressing a battery of reporters here yesterday.

        He further said the workers were not getting due share of the profits earned by the different ports of the countries and charged the UPA government with obsession with privatisation of the ports which would affecting the livelihood of thousands of workers, and criticised it for employing contractual labour to work in the ports.

        Hemlal Chatterjee, a trustee of the Kolkata Port Trust, said the Union Shipping Minister T R Baalu had done precious little for the port workers. 'The Minister made us run from pillar to post to settle the long-standing bonus issue, and the issue was settled only after a lot wrangling on our part,' he said.

        He further said the major port trusts of the country should be allowed to function independently, which according to him would enable the Port Trusts to run in an effective manner to meet global competitions.