the goan I network
PANAJI
The Congress on Sunday accused Chief Minister Pramod Sawant of blocking a probe into how the grounded chemical tanker MT Nu Shi Nalini which is carrying some 2500 tonnes of highly combustible naphtha loaded in Karachi, Pakistan, came to land in Goan waters.
A complaint stating the charge against Sawant has been dispatched to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in which Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President, Girish Chodankar, states that the unmanned tanker poses an environmental danger to the Goa coast.
“The Goa CM has categorically stated that the said vessel is loaded with highly inflammable naphtha, which has originated from a port in Pakistan and has travelled to India. It is unclear how and why the tanker was permitted to enter the Mormugao Port Trust,” Chodankar said in the complaint.
Nu Shi Nalini, dubiously anchored off the MPT port but within its jurisdiction began drifting towards Dona Paula on October 24 in the wake of inclement weather associated with cyclone Kyarr. It finally grounded on rock and sand about 800 meters off the Marivel beach, a fishing hamlet adjacent to the Governor’s residence, Cabo Raj Bhavan on October 26.
Since then, the Sawant administration has been juggling between multiple agencies to manage the salvage of both the ship and the dangerous naphtha cargo but has made no progress at all.
The tanker is also said to be holding 50 tonnes of diesel and some 19 tonnes of oil.
Chodankar said in his complaint to Modi that Sawant has failed to clarify on the consignees and consignors of the cargo lying in the tanker’s storage tanks.
Meanwhile, the MPT has officially conveyed to the Bombay High Court that the tanker faces the imminent danger of its bottom giving way and the naphtha, oil and diesel possibly spilling into the sea posing a grave ecological danger.
“The CM has conspicuously maintained complete silence over the action to be initiated against those responsible for bringing such a ship to MPT,” Chodankar’s complaint adds.
Meanwhile, MPT’s assertion to the Bombay High Court that the tanker is in imminent danger of cracking up has lent another twist to its 17-day saga coming as it does in the wake of Sawant’s repeated insistence that there is no danger of spillage and that it was in good condition. The Goa government is already in talks with two Singapore-based firms to salvage the vessel and Sawant is now claiming that the 5-member panel comprising three officials of the Director General (Shipping), the Chief Secretary of Goa Parimal Rai, and the chairman of MPT will finalise the salvage firm to execute the task on Monday.
Bombay High Court’s Justice K R Shriram, in the order delivered on Friday last, quoted the MPT’s advocate Amrut Vernekar, saying there is “imminent danger” of the “vessel’s bottom breaking and also 2000 tonnes of naphtha on board the vessel together with diesel and heavy oil leaking into the sea and endanger marine life”.
Justice Shriram’s order was an interim one in an ongoing suit between Samson Maritime Limited and the owners/charterers of Nu Shi Nalini, in which MPT had filed an intervenor application. It is set to be heard next on Dec 16.
