Airport’s cargo staff strike over odd-even rule

Irked with the odd -even system at the Mumbai airport cargo terminal, Bhartiya Kamgar Sena (BKS) avoided working at the cargo section on Monday.

Commenting on the strike, Vijay Chitre, of the Shiv Sena-affiliated BKS, said, earlier a person who is supposed to drop cargo had to visit the customs superintendent to finish the formalities, and one was free to choose any counter of officials, which is less crowded. But, now customs officials issued a notice saying the one who needs to drop the cargo is supposed to go to odd-even windows as per their receipt number to the superintendent. “After the cargo gets examined, the agent visits these customs officials, to get a clearance letter and only after obtaining the letter does cargo get loaded on the aircraft,” informed Mr. Chitre.

According to BKS workers, earlier it was a single window system at the cargo where, the person who is supposed to drop or receive cargo was needed to visit one window only to submit and sign all the documents, but now the customs officials have separated the counters and one needs to visit several counters in order to get all the permissions and signatures. Commenting on the issue an official from customs under anonymity told this newspaper, it’s just a pilot project for a week to solve the long queue issue outside the cargo terminal.

Sources claimed that flights were affected due to the strike of 150 agents at X shed at the cargo terminal.