MARGAO: In a meeting between the Goa Civic and Consumer Action Network (GOACAN), the Deputy Collector Uday Prabhudesai and several other officials from the Fisheries department, health department, Velim village Panchayat etc, it was revealed that the Fisheries department doesn’t keep track of all the labourers working on trawlers as they go out to sea and return.

Calling it a national security risk, the shocked deputy collector asked the official from the fisheries department whether he had informed his superiors about this issue. 

The Fisheries official said that labourers are not fixed employees and may work for just a day. “Some staff of trawlers are not applying for the ID,” he said. 

Prabhudessai asked him who has to see whether the trawlers are following the directions of the Fisheries Department. “You be strict that they should report to you compulsorily; and how many labours are on trawlers?” Prabhudesai asked the official.

GOACAN asked the Fisheries officials what steps they have taken regarding the poor sanitation and open defecation in the Cutbona jetty.