Manpower shortage hits Chittagong Port

It hampers usual and smooth functioning of official works regularly, a top official at Chittagong port said.

A total of 2617 posts, both technical and non-technical, are lying vacant, said Hadi Hossain Babul, Chief Planning of Chittagong Port Authority (CPA).

Shortage of over 2550 personnel ranging from the fourth-class employee to top ranking posts is causing problem to the day-to-day works of Chittagong Port and its impact is very bad.

Sources said the port now is running with around 8,500 workforces and it need to recruit at least 1500 more to fill up the vacancies immediately to ensure smooth and efficient performance of the port.

Official sources said proposals for immediate recruitment in the vacant posts were sent to the ministry concerned on number of occasions but those have been shelved due to the bureaucratic tangle.

This shortage stand in the way of our efforts to render proper services to the stakeholders of Chittagong Port, Hadi said.

The port-based labour organisations had long been pressing for filling the vacant posts to reap their vested and political interests since bulk of the vacant posts are for the third and fourth class positions.

"The posts are mainly of non-technical and of no great importance for the Chittagong Port at all. The seaport would not suffer the pinch if devoid of those below-par and non-expertise hands," said another official seeking anonymity.

He said the labour leaders were shedding 'crocodile's tear' for the posts only to confirm and increase their volume of voters during election of the port CBA.

"International aid agencies had been insisting on the performance enhancement of Chittagong Port to cope with the world shipping trade. Following intervention by the labour organisations, the CPA lacks that much efficiency, a major concern for all stakeholders, he added.

Mahfuzur Rahman Khan, a labour leader, refuting the charges said those are merely self-made speculations based on utopian indiscretion.

"Those big bosses who always point fingers at us are members of the most privileged section of the port and they naturally won't feel the heartbeats of poor workers or their hardship," he said.