Sandbar issue: CM assures backwater facility at Cutbona

Team Herald

MARGAO: Following the problems faced by trawler owners and traditional fishermen at Cutbona due to a sand bar blocking their navigational channel at the mouth of the River Sal, a public meeting was held at Betul on Saturday, during which Chief Minister Pramod Sawant gave an assurance to resolve the situation immediately.

At the meeting that was attended by trawler owners and some traditional fishermen as well, Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas and Velim MLA Cruz Silva called up Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on the phone, and shared the details of their conversation with the attendees.

Viegas put Sawant on speaker phone so that the people at the meeting could directly listen to the stance of the State government.

Sawant informed Viegas that the government had started constructing the break water facility years ago but the matter was held up as an NGO had gone to court. “I do not know the exact status; I will find out and revert on that. We will however go ahead with the project,” said Sawant.Viegas and Silva also listed measures where the dredging of the sand bar can be done as soon as possible and said that the required machinery would be ferried by barges, to avoid the problems such work has faced in the past. While former President of the Cutbona Boat Owners Development Union Society Patrick D’silva asked for a meeting to be convened with the CM once he returns to Goa, Vinay Tari, Chairman of the Cutbona-based Fisheries Cooperative Society said the fishing community at Cutbona has been suffering for many years due to this navigational issue.

D’Silva referred to the recent Rajya Sabha report on depleting fish production in Goa and said these issues are mainly caused due to problems with infrastructure like the sand bar issue, or the need for a bigger ice factory.  He added that there should be no problems between the trawler owners and traditional fishermen.

Tari also clarified that the traditional fishermen are not blocking the proposed dredging work but want work on the permanent solution – the breakwater facility– to start immediately.