Team Herald
MARGAO: Director General of Shipping Amitabh Kumar has conveyed that the certificates indicated in the show-cause notices issued to all the 3,762 candidates have been cancelled and the candidates will have to repeat these courses again from approved maritime training institutes.
This has brought a big relief to the seafarers who were on the verge of losing employment due to the order of country’s maritime administration issuing notices to 3,762 seafarers who allegedly secured qualification certificates without attending classes.
It may be recalled that the Director General of Shipping India had in the biggest crackdown yet on a maritime training racket, had served show-cause notices on seafarers who had secured certificates without attending classes and also to the institutes that had awarded the certificates.
The period of debarment announced earlier for these fake certificate-holders ended on January 31.
Candidates who have repeated the training and have been issued fresh certificates from approved training institutes will have to apply for restoration of their e-migrate facility and the same shall be restored within 10 working days.
Those who have not repeated the training courses can do so within six months from February 1 and apply for restoration of their e-migrate facility, and the same shall be restored within 10 days after receipt of their applications.
Any other seafarer (outside the 3,762) who suo moto wishes to surrender his certificate obtained wrongly to the DG Shipping, can do so and repeat the course(s) till July 31, 2020, without facing any debarment. This facility will not be available after July 31 and surrender after this date will attract debarment in accordance with Merchant Shipping Rules.
“The amnesty has been granted on humanitarian considerations and is strictly a one-time measure. The detection of similar transgressions in the future will attract penalty of cancellation of Continuous Discharge Certificate (CDC) and debarment of up to 5 years,” Kumar stated.
GSAI has welcomed the decision taken by DG shipping as this has created a panic in the shipping industry and was arbitrary.
