Team Herald
CURCHOREM: The Executive Committee of the Goan Seamen Association of India (GSAI) and the members called on Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant (Babu) Kavlekar at his residence at Betul on Friday and submitted letter containing their grievances.
They requested Kavlekar to convey their demands to the government and help them to restart the NUSI hospital at Panzorconi-Cuncolim. They also requested him to find out and give them a copy of the lease agreement between NUSI and Cunolim Comunidade which gave its land on lease for the benefit of seafarers.
“Give medical facilities to our retired seamen and their widows twice a week in the new upcoming district hospital in Margao,” they stated in their letter.
The delegation also requested the minister to arrange a meeting with NRI Commissioner.
Narendra Sawaikar and the director to scrutinise the new pension form and to know the status of the 82 new applications which are approved under Goa Welfare Pension, but the payments are pending due to technical reasons.
They also urged him to request the Director General of Shipping to pardon the youth who obtained the CDC with fake qualification certificates to secure job on ship and reduce their banning period from 5 years to 1 year.
“Collect data and maintain a record of all the seafarers, so that, the government should know how many of them are on voyage and return. It will also help globally to track them in case of accidents at sea or missing as government will have details of the company, agency in India, contact numbers of head office and at sea including seafarers’ phone numbers,” letter signed by GSAI President Franklin D Çosta said.
Later, D Çosta informed that Kavlekar assured them to consider their requests/demands at the earliest.
