On any day, the price of the fish sold in the market, especially at Margao, is exorbitant. It is unclear as how the price of the fish is fixed and who does it. Some fish is sold in shares and some other fish is sold in kilograms. Then different towns and villages have different modes of selling fish at market squares. This has been going on for several years.
Now, instead of regularising the price of the fish sold in the market and suggesting uniform ways of selling fish, the fisheries department has come up with the idea of selling fish through mobile vans at subsidised rates. This certainly is another way of helping and protecting the rich middlemen who control the prices of fish sold in the market.
Selling fish through mobile vans, especially in the villages of South Goa, will affect the livelihood of many poor fish vendors who sell fish daily carrying baskets on their heads or cycles. A large number of people in villages depend on such fish vendors. The fisheries minister has said nothing about them and their future. Therefore, instead of selling fish through mobile vans, the fisheries department must moot the idea of having Government kiosks at various markets places selling fish at subsidized rates as it is done in various cities in our country.
Rui Pereira, Navelim
