DHUBRI: A three-member committee constituted by IWAI to look into allegations of unauthorized collection of quoted rate from exporters, visited Dhubri River Port and met all the stakeholders recently. The three-member committee was headed by Vice Chairman of IWAI along with Member (T&L) and Regional Director, IWAI Guwahati. The committee took strong cognisance of the Dhubri port incident. The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI), the nodal agency for internal waterways under Ministry of Ports, Shipping & Waterways, Government of India, has set up a high level inquiry committee led by the Vice Chairman, Sunil Kumar Singh along with Member (T&L), Vinayak Azad and Regional Director (Guwahati), M Selvakumar. A source in Dhubri River Port said that committee members heard all the stakeholders, gathered evidences which would be submitted to the high officials at Guwahati soon.
IWAI categorically clarified that no kind of threat or illegal activities would be allowed within the premises of Dhubri port and anyone found guilty of wrongdoings shall be brought to the book as per law, source further said.
It is to be noted that M/s A to Z EXIM has earlier lodged an FIR at Dhubri Sadar Police Station against one Dileep Dutta along with a few others for trespassing into the Dhubri terminal and threatened the staff of the company.
However, a cross FIR was also lodged at the Dhubri Sadar Police Station against M/S A to Z by an employee of an exporter, whose name was not found, alleging overcharging above and beyond codified rates.
A reliable source informed that the ownership of the Dhubri port remains with IWAI while IWAI appointed A to Z EXIM, Mumbai as the designated operator responsible for the operation and maintenance of IWAI Dhubri Port on August 25, 2023.
Through this agreement, the responsibility for its day to day operations and maintenance, including safety and security of the facility is to be handled by the company.
A source in Clearance and Forwarding Agency (CNF) alleged that total operation of export-Import has come to standstill since last fortnight where in during 2021-22 financial year, 1,07000 MT coal, stone chips and boulder were exported from Dhubri Terminal, but due to unrest and mismanagement on the part river port authority, total transaction of goods has come down to only 5 percent till now in the financial year 2022-23.
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