CUNCOLIM: Unruly boat owners disrupted the general body meeting of Cutbona Boat owners Association on Tuesday
At the meeting, traditional small boat owners and purse seine big boat owners came face to face and began accusing each other of wrong doing. Some boat owners even went to the extent to throwing chairs at each other.
Some small boat owners objected to extending Cutbona Jetty.
One Pandharinath Kerkar questioned the government’s authority extend the Jetty and construct toilet blocks without taking locals into confidence. Kerkar said that they would object such type of extension, which he termed, as an attempt to build mini harbour in the guise of development.
Big boat owners objected to this and accused the small boat owners of being against the development. Countering the purse seine boat owners, the some boat owners also objected to the use of LED lights.
There was a heated debate over the complaint filed before the Fisheries department against the use of LED lights by the association.
President Savio D’Silva rejected a demand by some purse seine owners for the withdrawal of the complaint saying they “will not allow such type of illegalities at Cutbona Jetty.” In response, the big boat owners accused the committee of being biased against them.
Meanwhile, the big boat owners have threatened to start a new organisation if their demands are not met. However, some boat owners warned that they would not allow two different associations at one jetty.
“If the separate association takes shape, then they will not be allowed to use the Jetty and will be thrown out from the society,” warned a member.
It may be recalled that the purse seine boat owners from Cutbona consisting of around 140 members had recently formed a new association.
The jetty has been facing infighting since the LED issue cropped and on Sunday there was another commotion on alleged illegal tapping of electricity for repair work on one of the boats at the jetty.
