AAP urges govt to pay pension dues of seafarers before polls

PANJIM: Highlighting that 1740 seafarers have not received their pension under the new Seafarers Retirement Pension Scheme, and that approx 2454 seafarers have dues pending since October, AAP leader Captain Venzy Viegas demanded that all dues under the scheme be cleared before elections.
Viegas pulled up the government for denying pension to 1740 seafarers as they had not submitted their life certificates. He stated that it was shameful that despite all its resources the government could not send officers to the homes of the seafarers to get their certificates made, especially considering the pandemic.
Viegas also demanded that 2021 retired seafarers pension scheme should be made permanent and new retired seafarers should be allowed to register towards the scheme.
“Seafarers of Goa have been suffering during the lockdown, first due the pandemic and subsequent shipping crisis a problem that was exacerbated when the Sawant sarkar refused to prioritise seafarers for vaccines thus leading to Goans losing out to people from other parts of India and the world. This distress is doubled for retired seafarers due to callousness and bureaucratic red tape”, Viegas claimed.
“Earlier retired seafarers would get two types of pensions, the first under the DSS scheme and the second as their seafarers pension. The Sawant sarkar asked many seafarers to club both these schemes for a single payment. In October 19 the seafarers scheme was paused though the DSS scheme continued. Therefore seafarers who clubbed the scheme received neither payment from Oct 2019 till May 2021”, Viegas said.
“In June the government launched a new seafarers scheme and released payments on August 31. However, seafarers have still not received their payment from October 2019 till May 2021. Moreover the new scheme didn’t allow any new registrations of retired seafarers, while denying 1740 of those already registered for the scheme pensions due to lack of ‘life’ certificates”, he added.
“Just like the Kejriwal government, AAP in Goa will visit the houses of the excluded seafarers and help get them their life certificates. Therefore we urge you to share these details,” said Viegas.