Container Handling Crippled in Chennai Port as DRI, Customs Raid Imported Cargos for Fake Currencies

· Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai also Affected

· Nothing Found but Movement Disrupted Affecting “Ease of Doing Business” even as the Instructions and Intelligence is said to Emanate from PMO

Container handling operations in the Chennai Port Trust came to grinding halt since late 17 March night due to joint searches conducted by the officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and the Customs department, following a “tip off” that a large sums of fake Indian currencies are hidden in the containers.

Raids were being conducted simultaneously across several ports in the country.

“All the imported containers, which is said to be allegedly containing the fake Indian currencies, are subjected to thorough checks by the DRI and the customs officials’’. Fake currencies have surfaced even as demonetization is supposed to have banished them with the additional security features in the new currency notes. In fact, the denomination of 2k in the new currency has further incentivized the production of fake currencies.

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) is continuing its extensive searches in in, Mumbai and Kolkata ports as well besides the container depot in Tughlaqabad for the fourth day following a tip off that consignments of fake Indian currency and arms have reached the country’s shores.

This has resulted in congestion in some ports as additional customs and excise official other than those posted in the ports have been requisitioned to ensure free movement of trucks into the ports.

Traffic has been hit due to rigorous searches being carried out by DRI sleuths in these ports.

Till now, the searches have not yielded anything in spite of the extensive clampdown.

Chennai Port recorded a movement of nearly 1,600 trucks carrying goods for outbound cargo. However, the flow of trucks carrying incoming cargo has yet to get normal.

Even Central Industrial Security Force Personnel have been deployed to handle the disruption.. It is learnt that each and every container is checked minutely. The instructions to carry out the searches has come directly from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Movement of ships and goods at five depots, including Kolkata Port Trust’s twin facilities at Kidderpore and Haldia, were affected on Sunday as sleuths checked shipping containers

A team of 80 officers drawn from the Department of Revenue Intelligence and customs formed eight teams to check containers in what is undoubtedly the largest search operation in recent times. By the end of the day, the men could clear only 50 containers out of 8,000, underlining the enormity of the task at hand. The absence of advanced scanners at the ports have only made the search more difficult.

Sleuths are particularly focusing on the Kolkata Dock System (KDS) as it handles a significant number of containers and acts as a feeder port for north India. A large number of containers from KDS travels to the inland terminal in Tughlakabad, Delhi.

Kolkata Port Trust officials allayed fears of congestion and claimed the port could handle the situation for three-four days. “Containers did not move out from the ports on Sunday. A decision on the matter will be taken on Monday but there is no immediate risk of congestion,” said S Balaji Arun Kumar, deputy chairman of KoPT.

“Initially the mandate was to look for contraband,” an official said. The order was to go through containers that landed in Kolkata and Haldia after March 1.KDS has already handled over 6,00,000 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEU) of containers in 2016-17 while HDC’s share has been 1,17,000 TEUs. Of these, 8,000 have been segregated for thorough searches.

“We chose some of the containers based on the port of origin and articles,” an official said. According to customs sources, the lens is on containers from the Middle East, politically disturbed European countries and North African countries.