MARGAO, SEPT 21
The National Union of Seafarers of India has said that the Seafarers Welfare Fund Society (SWFS) has constituted a Task Force to look into the long pending demand of retired seafarers for a hike in the monthly Ex-gratia assistance.
“The Committee of Management of the SWFS has formed a Task Force which will look into the matter, ways and means to increase the inflow of funds in the SWFS, which will in turn increase the assistance amount”, NUSI general secretary Abdulgani Y Serang told PWD Minister Churchill Alemao.
In a letter to the PWD Minister, the NUSI general secretary pointed out that Alemaohas been consistently raising the issue about the increase of Rs 200 monetary assistance presently given to retired seafarers or their widows. “Based on our interaction, NUSI has been demanding from the Seafarers Welfare Fund Society (SWFS) that the amount of Rs 200 should be raised. The Committee of Management of the SWFS did not agree to the increase as it is short of funds”, Abdulgani said.
Armed with Abdulgani’s letter, the PWD Minister on Tuesday came down heavily on South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha, accusing him for fooling the seafarers and their families on the pretext of solving their long pending demands. “Sardinha cannot do anything with the demands of Seamen. I was doing the correspondence with NUSI and Abdulgani for a hike in the ex-gratia relief. Sardinha is only coming to take mileage like he did with the direct Goa-Vailankani train”, he asserted.
When newsmen pointed out that he has not done anything to get the ex-gratia relief hike since his meeting with the seafarers in 2007, Alemao shot back saying that the NUSI general secretary would not have written a letter to him if he had not taken interest in the demand of the seafarers. “Unlike Sardinha, I am a seamen and understands the problems of the seafarers. I had even raised the issue of seamen in Parliament during my tenure as MP”, he told newsmen…
