VASCO: About 58 displaced porters who were providing their services at Dabolim airport on Tuesday held a peaceful demonstration for their untimely removal from service. According to the porters, they were working as porters at Dabolim airport for several years and were shocked to learn their service was terminated without advance notice.
“In all we are 70 porters working at the Dabolim airport however on Tuesday we were officially told that out of 70 porters, Airport Authority of India (AAI) official at Goa airport will absorb only 12 porters while other remaining porter’s service has been terminated. We were also assured that we would be absorbed once the new contractor would take over the contract, but now we have been informed by the AAI they have taken a decision to absorb only 12 loaders in service while other 58 including me are now left jobless, creating unemployment situation, leaving our families and dependents high and dry. So to protest against injustice today we have demonstrated outside the airport premises” said one affected porter
Meanwhile when Herald contacted Airport Director BCH Negi to seek more details about the issue, he said “From AAI side there are no suspended or terminated contract laborers. The contract of agency that had deployed these porters has expired. As no agency has evinced interest in new contract which AAI has been trying since October last year, as an interim arrangement we are deploying 12 people through our annual maintenance contract till we put in place new contract for which tender is already floated by AAI Goa.”
