Unfortunately, the agencies such as the director general of shipping, the national maritime board, ship-owners' association, shippers' councils have remained a silent spectator to this mafia-like operation of dredging companies in connivance with port trust management over a long period of time. This has emboldened the racketeers to perpetuate the corrupt practice with impunity.

Scores of cargo vessels - tankers, OBOs, Roll-Off-Roll-Ons, bulk carriers, container ships, etc. - are made to wait in deep seas for days or even weeks before some of them get diverted to other ports often for want of required draft in the navigational channels and docks. It is a key function of port trust authorities to keep the navigational channels free for the easy movement of vessels. But, their track records in this regard are extremely poor. The shortage of powerful dredgers and poor quality dredging are often blamed for constant accumulation of silt in the navigational channels on the sea-bed or river-bed. The official position is only partly true. The real reason is the deliberate underporformance by dredger operators. The quantity of underwater silt or mud dredged is very often exaggerated. Even port trust's own dredgers do this to thieve expensive diesel and engine oils.

What allows the data manipulation with regard to the quantity of mud dredged is the silt disposal system. In many cases, mud lifted from the sea or river bed is not dumped on shore for the authorities to see and measure. Instead, the loose dredged mud is dumped into water to be washed away during the low tide. Naturally, the system leaves the scope of corruption by dredger operators. To make things worse, port trusts are rarely tough on dredger operators. The setting up of a state-owned firm, Dredging Corporation of India, nearly four decades ago at the initiative of the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, did not radically alter the situation, especially after the initial years. Successive governments did not pay much attention to shipping, which has been part of the light-weight surface transport ministry. The Dredging Corporation today is an underequipped organization, itself a victim of apathy of the government and port trusts and of deeply-entrenched corruption.

The poor quality of dredging is affecting adversely ship turn around in several large ports such as Mumbai, Chennai, Tuticorin, Kandla and Vizag. However, the worst-affected is the country's largest twin river port system, Kolkata-Haldia, the survival of which is at stake because of the falling draft in the navigational channels in the Hooghly owing to the poor performance of the Dredging Corporation. Recently, a Trinamool Congress leader, Shubhendu Adhikari, a Member of Parliament from Haldia (Tamluk), levelled serious charges of corruption against the port trust authorities and the Dredging Corporation, demanding that dredging be handed over to private agencies to save the port. The young fire-brand Trinamool MP demanded an investigation into a huge financial scandal involving senior port trust and Dredging Corporation officials in approving 'false' dredging reports and, in the process, siphoning out large public funds year after year.

While the Trinamool MP may not be wrong in his assumption about the existence of massive corruption in dredging, his recommended solution by way of engaging private dredging companies for the purpose is unlikely to be effective since private operators too can be corrupted by port trust officials who are dishonest. In the 1980s, the river port's biggest dredging scandal involved a foreign company which had to leave the country following a high-level official investigation into the scam. Ironically, no port trust official was punished for aiding and abetting the perpetrators of the crime. The amounts involved in dredging operations in all major ports run over Rs. 2,000 crore a year. The dredging of the Haldia dock system alone costs some Rs. 400 crore, annually.

It is time that the Union Ministry of Surface Transport took the matter seriously and found ways to tackle the problem of cheating in underwater dredging in ports and save the Kolkata-Haldia dock system from certain collapse. In fact, the ministry can obtain reports from the management of some of the best operated international river and sea ports with regard to their dredging functions and experience in order to keep the drafts in the navigational channels and docks at safe levels throughout the year. Such reports should help the government to take a strong and comprehensive policy decision with regard to the engagement and discharge of the dredging services to keep the country's port and dock systems and navigational channels in best operational conditions. It should provide exemplary punishment to those seeking to corrupt the system.

The port and dock systems are going to play a very important role in the country's economic growth and development in the coming years. The matter can't be left to be handled by the Surface Transport Ministry alone. The Planning Commission, the Union Commerce Ministry, the Defence Ministry and the Finance Ministry must work together with the department of shipping to form a high-level nodal agency to oversee the efficient operation of important sea and river ports in the country. Indian ports have long suffered draft problems, congestion and poor ship turn-round. It would be suicidal to neglect these issues as the country's projected economic growth rate can never be achieved if its ports and docks fail to deliver. (IPA Service)