City loaders weigh down air travellers

Mumbai: Important installations like airports in India are not just targets for terrorists. City’s airport suffers from an internal threat — loaders.
It is more than often that passengers find themselves held hostage at the airport car park to veiled threats from unscrupulous loaders. These men wear green uniforms with yellow epaulettes with markings showing their affiliation to ‘Vimantaal Hamaal Ekta Sangatana’ (VHES).
They introduce themselves as ‘authorised personnel to facilitate baggage transfer from the airport entrance to the parking zone’. A very high sounding euphemism for good old porters indeed! They fleece passengers of money and goods with mild blackmail — very polite and veiled threats are made to extort exorbitant charges.
“The porters demand unconscionable tips from foreign passengers. If refused, they slyly cite instances of passengers’ baggage being stolen after they refused to give in to some porters unreasonable demands,” said a spokesperson for the Airport Authority.
Though junior police officers attached to the Sahar airport police station have allegedly complained to the ACP (Airport Division), Janardhan Garje, that senior officials were turning a blind eye to the illegal activities of the loaders, the situation has not changed.
19/02/07 Raju Parulekar/Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: airports feb 2007