Jesuin George Fernandes
The joke in Arossim-Cansaulim is that the wedding party felt overcharged by the hotel, provoking the groom`s father (owner of Arihant Ship Breakers) to purposefully drag the scrap-yard-ready Pontoon in their backyard.
Jokes aside, it now appears that the owners of the grounded junk in connivance with the Government authorities are slowly driving us into a situation where the only viable option would be to cut the Pontoon on the site, turning Arossim Beach into a scrap yard!
Why else would the Government authorities issue a 15-day notice at this stage when a notice should have gone soon after the Pontoon grounded three weeks ago? In another 15-20 days the sea is likely to turn choppy making the re-floating job very, very difficult if not impossible.
According to Olav De Souza, an expert ship salvager with rich experience in the field, its pretty easy to float and tow the vessel to the scrap yard now and he is even ready to do it at cost price.
It looks like the owners want to take the easier way out (the cheaper option) with no regards to the consequences.
Some time back, I virtually high jacked my neighbor Captain Braganca, a Master mariner, while he was on his evening walk and drove him straight to the site where they were trying to float and tow the grounded tug boat. He found the whole operation amusing and grossly unprofessional. Luckily for them and for us too, they managed to tow it after struggling for a week (A job that could have been professionally accomplished in one day!) even as the vessel narrowly missed falling on its sides on quite a few occasions.
On the positive side, the hitherto unheard of word ’Pontoon’ has become a household name in Arossim-Cansaulim. Even a nipple sucking tot in my village now knows what a Pontoon is! But the question weighing on everybody`s mind is why the Hotel that hosted this extravagant wedding was allowed to shrug off all responsibilities?! If during a function at my house, the fireworks misfire and burn my neighbour`s house, won’t I be held responsible?
In future the Local body should issue licenses for Beach Weddings only to the Hotels hosting the event. This will also enable the Panchayat to grade the function as small, medium or big and charge accordingly. Events are hosted entirely by the Hotel, event managers are planted so that they can absolve themselves of all responsibilities!
