All India Port and Dock Workers Federation has come out against the proposed Major Port Authorities Bill 2016, saying that the Bill will hurt the interests of labour and hinder the operations of major ports.

The federation requested the Centre not to take any “arbitrary decisions” on the Bill, which was intended to replace the existing Major Port Trust Act. The proposed Bill is now placed before the Parliament. Several of its provisions provides facilities to own the port lands by sale instead of lease arrangement that exists at present, the union said.

The government’s attempt under the pretext of extending more autonomy to ports is intended to hand over major ports to multinational companies and to ultimately convert the ports into landlord ports, according to the federation.

It was not necessary to repeal the present MPT Act. The government can instead update the Act by making amendments to the provisions wherever required as suggested by several parliamentary committees, said PM Mohammed Haneef, the federation president.

In the proposed Bill, he said the government has reduced the labour representation in the Port Trust Boards from the existing two to one and also propose to appoint a person representing labour without consulting trade unions.

Since major ports are in possession of about 2.71 lakh hectares of land, the federation asked the government and Indian Ports Management to assess the value of the assets of major ports including the land in possession on market rate and declare it in public. Of the total land in possession, he said, around 2.31 lakh hectares are underutilised.