The ministry has also asked Financial Advisor and Chief Accounts Officer A Krishanan to proceed on a long leave and A K Gadakar, chief mechanical engineer, has been transferred to Chennai port as chief engineer.

''Yes, this is true. I have got a fax from the ministry this evening and I would be taking over as chairman of KPT on Thursday as ordered. I do not know the reason for this development,'' G S Rao told this paper on late Wednesday evening.

Sources in the KPT told this paper that the ministry's order, faxed this evening, merely says that both Rao and his deputy Manoranjan Kumar stand relieved from their post with immediate effect.

In the case of Kumar, the ministry has given him three months' leave, while there is no such mention in the case of Janardhan Rao. Incidentally, both Rao and Kumar are in Delhi.

Sources said, though the changes affecting four top KPT officers, two of whom are heads of the department, had been sent a joint order, the reasons for such action against them are different in each case.

Both Rao, who is basically a port man, and Kumar, who had come on deputation from the centre, have been at loggerheads for a long time with Kumar reporting directly to the ministry what he considered to be irregularities in the port trust and Rao denying in his replies to the ministry. The internal fight seriously affected the port trust working.

The sources said that two top officials from the ministry were on their way to Kandla either for sealing of documents or for further investigation in the allegation and counter allegations between Rao and Manoranjan Kumar.