PANJIM: Traditional fishermen residing in Cacra along the River Zuari coast whose canoes were gutted in fire in March earlier this year, on Friday alleged that their compensation is being unduly held back by the state fisheries department. They also refuted the alleged comments by the Fisheries Minister Nilkanth Halarnkar that they deliberately set canoes on fire to fetch money from the government.
The affected fishermen under the banner of ‘All Goa Small Scale Responsible Fisheries Union’ (AGSSRFU) have demanded compensation from the government, for the loss they suffered when their canoes were destroyed due to disastrous storms and fires in the recent past.
According to the Union, a canoe belonging to Santos Gauns, a fisherman from Cacra was destroyed on July 25, 2019 in an early morning storm, but the Fisheries Department is yet to provide him compensation to rebuild his destroyed canoes even though four years are about to get completed next month.
In a fire incident on March 20, 2023 early morning fishing canoes belonging to fishermen Sanjay Pereira, Santosh Kukalkar, Santosh Gauns, Govind D’mello and late Kashinath Pereira were gutted in fire, in the same fire fishing net belonging to fishermen Chandranath Rosario also gutted after which the government authorities were intimated, local police carried on investigations, Santa Cruz MLA Rodolfo Fernandes carried on-site visit to see the gutted canoes in Cacra.
Subsequently, the fisheries department deputed a private company to estimate loss caused to the fishermen due to fire. The particular company charged Rs 5,000 from each affected fisherman, thus putting additional financial burden on them.
The AGSSRFU further claimed that Fisheries Minister Nilkanth Halarnkar announced on May 16, 2023 in Panjim and May 19, 2023 in Canacona that the owners of the gutted fishing canoes at Cacra will be given above Rs two lakh each. After some days he backtracked and reduced the promised amount to just Rs. 40,000. The Union has alleged that subsequently the Minister levelled “false” allegations without any evidence that Cacra fishermen set their own canoes to fetch money from the government.
“My canoe was gutted in fire in March, till date I am waiting for compensation. In order to feed my family I had no other option than to work on a canoe belonging to a fisherman in my village,” Sanjay Pereira, one of the affected fishermen said.
“Fisheries department has accumulated a corpus to the tune of Rs 20 crore from the contributions from fishermen. Interest over this amount itself is enough to defray the loss suffered by fishing communities in various disasters. The department is selectively targeting us for no reason, fuel subsidies of one financial year have not been disbursed to traditional fishermen of Tiswadi block,” Pereira added.
He said that one of the five canoes that were gutted in fire was registered with the department, adding that he appealed to the government to compensate the fishermen on humanitarian grounds, who are not in possession of required documents.
The AGSSRFU has demanded immediate release of funds from Corpus funds for compensation to fishermen whose canoes were destroyed due to storm and fire in Cacra. They said that in case this demand is rejected then new canoes be given to the aggrieved fishermen free of cost by the department.
They further added that fulfilment of any of the two demands will end “practices of cruelty” towards fishing communities allegedly perpetuated by the fisheries department.
Despite repeated attempts, contact could not be established with the Fisheries Minister Nilkanth Halarnkar for his comments.
