TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s promise to open outlets to sell subsidised fish may have not yet seen light of the day till date.
However, Fisheries Minister Avertano Furtado, has come out with a novel idea of making available fish at cheaper rates across the villages in Salcete till the promised fish outlets take concrete shape.
In fact, the much sought after “Chonok” and “Modso” harvested from the sea cage culture at Canacona was sold like hot cakes in kilograms near the old Navelim panchayat office on Sunday with the Fisheries Minister promising to take the exercise to other Salcete villages as well.
“Every Sunday, we will procure fish from the sea cage culture and from across the border at Karwar and sell the same to fish-loving Goans at cheap rates. It could be Benaulim on coming Sunday and Chinchinim the following Sunday. The objective behind this exercise was to make available fish at cheaper price than the market rate. A kilogram of Chonok in the market today was priced at Rs 500, but we have sold here for Rs 300,” Avertano told the media.
Replying to a question, he said that Fisheries Department’s sea cage culture experiment in Canacona has given encouraging results. “We had experimented sea cage culture with 25-30 cages. The fishermen have received good response”, he added. Buoyed by the success, the Fisheries Minister said the department may go in for 100 sea cages in the next season, which will not only benefit the fishermen, but fish-loving Goans
as well.
On the fate of the government’s proposal to sell subsidised fish in outlets across the state, Avertano said the department has not abandoned the proposal and will be implemented as promised by the government. “I am talking to trawler owners on the question of procuring fish from subsidised outlets”, he added.
