MARGAO: For the next two months the fishing jetty at Cutbona which has been a hub of activity will wear a deserted look and in fact turn into a ghost town as the around 3000 people who were employed on trawlers will leave for their home towns due to the fishing ban which comes in effect from June 1.
All the labourers mainly come from three states, namely Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha with most of them coming from the latter. Interestingly two states are land locked and they learn the ropes of work on the trawlers they join.
These two months are the time when the trawler owners repair their vessels and also mend their nets with the net mending done mostly at the trawler owner’s residence while a few do it at the jetty. Labourers from Andhra Pradesh will come to Cutbona now to mend the nets.
The Cutbona jetty saw a change in its operations this year with the Fisheries Department maintaining it and has issued tokens for docking at the jetty which earlier was managed by the Cutbona Boat Owners Development Society/Union.
This fishing season there have been skirmishes as some trawlers would anchor at the jetty for excessively long hours with the Fisheries Department having no control over them thereby causing difficulties to other trawler owners who could not unload the catch their vessels brought.
The jetty was also not maintained properly alleged Savio D’Silva, president of the Boat Owners Union who pointed out that earlier they would wash the jetty everyday while this season the jetty was not at all washed due to which the adjoining road has collected the muck and turned bad.
The labourers live in pathetic sanitary condition as there are only 10 toilets that are provided by Sulabh Souchalaya. “The Fisheries Department had promised us some mobile toilets which has not happened till date even though the season has come to an end,” said Savio.
Given the condition in which they live, it was not surprising that dengue cases were reported at Cutbona compelling the Health Department and Velim panchayat to conduct a joint inspection.
