julio d’silva
There has been a fish famine in Goa for nearly five days now. However, as Goans and particularly the Catholic community was celebrating Easter, the lack of fish was not felt much. What is alarming is that the fish famine is likely to continue for some time as the Wholesale Fish Vendors Association has refused to do anything with the wholesale fish market as long as the present SGPDA contractor Milagres Fernandes continues to be the person collecting the fees from them.
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As there has been no fish supply in Salcete for the last five days, Deputy Collector Jyoti Kumari called for a meeting today with wholesale fish vendors, South Goa Planning and Development Authority, the Contractor and police.
Fish fight: Contractor vs Fish sellers
There has been a raging dispute at the wholesale fish market in Margao with the wholesale fish vendors making various charges against the contractor appointed by SGPDA to collect fees from them while the contractor alleging that the truck owners are not paying the amount agreed to.
The whole sale fish vendors do have an issue over the prices charged and they feel they are too high and argue that in other states the charges are lower than in Goa. However, what appears to be the main problem is the fact that Milagres is not officially given the contract to collect the sopo at the wholesale fish market because it has never been tendered.
Temporary authorisation has turned into permanent contract with no tenders
– Wholesellers
“He was temporarily authorised to collect the fees somewhere in 2019 and since then the temporary authorisation is being renewed without the SGPDA calling for tenders,” said Maulana Ibrahim of the Wholesale Fish Vendors Association who said they will stay away from the market as long as Milagres continues to collect the fees.
“The SGPDA should invite tenders and follow the due procedure to appoint a sopo collector,” said Maulana while accusing Milagres of being a bully who uses threats and bouncers to break down the fish vendors.
Actions politically motivated to malign image: Milagres
SOPO contractor Milagres Fernandes has got back saying Maulana’s actions are totally political aimed at maligning his image since he plans to contest the forthcoming civic elections from Margao
While the two groups trade charges the ones who are actually suffering are the Goan fish eating people who have not been getting regular supply of fish for the last five days as the wholesale fish vendors are not bringing any fish from outside the State to the wholesale fish market.
What is available in the market is fish from Goan trawlers and the ramponnkars which is hardly sufficient and the prices of fish has skyrocketed with one big mackerel being sold for Rs 100 each while the smaller ones called banguddleo in Konkani being sold for Rs 40 each.
Scarcity of fish was not that much of a problem for the Catholic population last week which was the Holy Week for them where abstinence commenced from Friday which was the day of fasting hence unavailability of fish was not much of a problem.
“During Lent we do not eat meat and have only fish which was available during lent and during the Holy Week due to abstinence we did not even notice that fish is not available,” said a housewife from Margao who further pointed out that from Sunday they have been gorging on meats.
People have been eating beef, pork or chicken for Easter and even on Monday. However, the shortage of fish will be felt in the next few days once people tire of eating meats and want their staple diet of “nustem”.
