the goan I network
PANAJI
Goa’s crisis owing to the unmanned tanker carrying some 2,500 tonnes of naphta being grounded off Dona Paula is even bigger than the mere ‘maritime disaster’ the State is making out to be.
The link to Pakistan, the country where the cargo was loaded onto the tanker has now come to light, sending top Goa government officials in a tizzy and could give the crisis a national security hue.
Early on Friday afternoon, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant told the media that the skipper of the tanker as well as its owner have been summoned by the State authorities.
Sawant said the govt will ensure that the Skipper will not leave Goa and that the owner of the ship will also be summoned for enquiry.
Late on Friday night, Sawant was closeted with top officials from his administration deliberating over the issue and subsequently conveyed the seriousness of the national security angle to the Centre, the official said.
From details available thus far, the cargo was loaded at a Port in Pakistan when that nation had the ‘Most Favoured Nation’ for business with India. However, after the Pulwama attack in February, India withdrew the ‘most favoured nation’ privilege granted to Pakistan making the cargo unviable for trade in India, forcing the original consignee to abandon it.
The Chief Minister’s Office when contacted late on Friday night declined to make any official comment on the Pakistan link or the national security angle of the crisis.
The tanker, ‘MT Nu Shi Nalini’, carrying nearly 2,500 tonnes of naphtha was anchored five nautical miles off Goa by the MPT after it failed to pass the routine Customs checks and was unable to offload the cargo even after berthing at the port.
On Thursday, the inclement weather led to the ship drifting towards the Goa coast in the direction for the Cabo Raj Bhavan in Dona Paula.
While several Central and State agencies were involved in attempting to stabilise the ship since Thursday, Sawant’s administration was confronted with the new national security angle a day later. Worse, by Friday noon, the ship which continued drifting, got grounded a distance closer to the Cabo Raj Bhavan.
Meanwhile, the State was also readying its strategy to proceed against MPT for negligence leading to the abandonment of the tanker by its skipper and the entire crew.
