India: DG shipping to take up identity issue of seafarers

DG shipping to take up identity issue of sailors
TNN | Dec 15, 2019 https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/dg-shipping-to-take-up-iden...

Margao: Goan seafarers affected by the deactivation of Indian National Database of Seafarers (INDOS) numbers by the director general of shipping (DG), have found some hope with the Union minister of state for shipping, chemicals and fertilisers, Mansukh Lal Mandaviya assuring a TDP MP of taking up the matter with the DG. INDOS serves as a means to crosscheck a seafarer’s identity.

“Many seafarers have made their representation to the Union minister for shipping from various states along with their MPs to take steps to ensure that they do not lose their employment on account of deactivation of their INDOS numbers. With this assurance now coming from the minister, we hope to hear some good news for the Goan seafarers soon,” Dixon Vaz of Goan Seafarers Association of India told reporters.

The commissioner for NRI affairs Narendra Sawaikar had recently written to Mandaviya to take steps to ensure that the employment of Goans whose INDOS number has been deactivated, is adequately protected.

Sawaikar had said that “such abrupt action of DG shipping has affected the livelihoods of sailors and their families”.