Navi Mumbai, Aug 15 (IANS) Former Maharashtra deputy chief minister Gopinath Munde Sunday met with fishermen of Karve village here and slammed the state government for not having a disaster management strategy for accidents like the recent oil spill off the Mumbai coast.
Munde said Karve village, with a population around 2,000 fishermen, was the worst hit due to the oil spill. ‘The losses suffered by the fishermen are huge and long term. Proper compensation has to be given to them,’ Munde, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader and deputy leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, said.
Two ships collided near the Mumbai harbour Aug 7, leading to a massive oil spill. The sunken containers fell from the Panamanin cargo carrier, MSC Chitra after its collision with a St. Kitts-flagged vessel, MV Khalijia-III.
Munde also visited the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) and took stock of the situation.
He expressed concern over 100,000 containers that have been lying at that port due to the restrictions on traffic movement in the sea owing to the oil spill.
‘There is still no coordination between agencies monitoring and assessing the losses due to the spill,’ Munde told reporters.
‘Apart from the lack of disaster management plan, there is absolute lack of strategy on rescue operations after such accidents,’ he added.
Munde said that the oil spill is one of the worst accidents India has seen after the Bhopal gas tragedy.
