MARGAO: In a big relief to seafarers in Goa and other parts of the country the Director General Shipping in an order relaxed the requirement of minimum 10th standard education qualification for CDC (Continuous Discharge Certificate).
The Director General of Shipping, Amitabh Kumar in an order on Wednesday relaxed the requirement of Sub-rule (5) of 10th standard education for the CDC.The Sub rule 5 of Rule 4 of the Merchant Shipping (Continuous Discharge Certificate) Rules, 2017 was amended making 10th standard compulsory for the seafarers and even for seafarers who havE worked on international cruise ships before the above rule came into force.
The order exempting the education qualification has come into immediate effect.
The seamen thanked the Shipping Minister and South Goa MP Adv. Narendra Sawaikar for the relaxation and the TCP Minister Vijai Sardessai for intervening in the matter.
Sawaikar thanked the Union Minister for Shipping, Nitin Gadkari for fulfilling the seafarers demand.
Sawaikar had made representations to Gadkari suggesting to drop the said eligibility condition as it was a hinderance for seafarers. The rule had adversely affected the Goan seamen working on cruises and if the rule was not changed there were fears that it would hit seafarers.
“I had even raised the issue in Parliament. Recently Gadkari had assured to issue an appropriate order. This has come as a big relief to thousands of Goans as well as seamen from other parts of the country who are working on cruise ships. The Govt. under leadership of PM Narendra Modi is fully
committed to the issues of the seafarer community, who are our ambassadors across the globe,” said Sawaikar.
Goa Seafarers Association of India, spokesperson Dixon Vaz thanked the shipping minister and South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar besides TCP Minister Vijai Sardessai for having intervened and written to the shipping minister to rollback of the rule.
“This is an important and timely intervention by Sawaikar and Sardessai for having directed the same,” he said. “The TCP Minister is to be specially congratulated as he had taken up the matter in a manner where it was hastened up and has now given relief to thousands of seafarers,” Dixon added.
He said thousands of seafarers without 10th standard qualification would not have been hired again if the old rule had not been changed which would result in mass unemployment.
Meanwhile, TCP Minister Vijai Sardessai thanked Gadkari for seeing the merit in the content raised by him and his party Goa Forward Party requesting relief to the seamen of Goa.
“I thank the Minister for helping eliminating the hardship faced by our seafaring Goemkar brethren. Taking up the issue is one thing; getting it done, another,” said Sardessi.
