Team Herald
MARGAO: The Goa Seamen Association of India (GSAI) has appealed to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to make the necessary allocations in the upcoming State budget so that the Goa Welfare/Pension Scheme for Seafarers is finally made permanent.
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In this regard, GSAI has written a letter to the CM, while copies were also marked to the offices of the Goa Government’s Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, NRI Director and NRI Commissioner.
“The seafarer’s community is once again grateful for the extension of six months to the pension scheme, which will expire in the month of May. Though everyone is pleased, the seafarer community still has to knock on the doors again and again, waiting for the pension scheme to be made permanent,” said GSAI President Frank Viegas.
“We are aware that the State budget 2023 will also be announced shortly, and we humbly request our Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant to make allocations in the budget for our community for future provisions so that this scheme will be made permanent under your leadership and especially for those who depend on it solely,” Viegas added.
“As mentioned in our previous correspondence again and again, we do plead again, to accept new applicants, to put a scrutiny committee in place and address the shortage of forms,” Viegas added.
It may be recalled that this has been a long pending demand from the seafarer community, but the government has resorted to giving various extensions to the existing scheme but have fallen short of making it permanent. In the past, the beneficiaries, the retired seafarers and widows had faced great difficulties when the scheme had stopped but after protests from the seafarer community, the scheme was revived by the State government.
