With the fishing ban slated to end on July 31, trawler crew members have begun arriving from other states and are gearing up for the season ahead. Vibha Verma speaks to fishermen on difficulties faced at the Malim jetty and the season ahead.
PANJIM: An eerie of silence that prevailed at the seven jetties across the state, has began to transcend into a buzzing zone with the fishing season coming to an end on July 31.
The Fisheries Department has started pooling in resources to give these jetties a facelift to improve the working conditions.
However the Malim jetty is still in a dilaphidated condition despite complaints from the trawler owners and fihing crew working on this jetty.
Malim jetty has over 4,000 workers working on 300 trawlers that venture into the sea for fishing. The workers expects the government to boost the working conditions at the jetty.
Apart from crew members who venture into the sea, presently around 30 workers are untangling purseine nets at the jetty, while others are busy washing nets, cleaning trawlers and mending nets.
The jetty faces numerous problems like its maintenance, expansion, and so forth.
“We expect the government to provide us with more facilities. We require additional 200 meters space at the jetty as against the present 110 meters, as the jetty is getting congested,” said Chairman of the Mandovi Fishermen Co-operative Society Sitakant Parab.
He also added that the congestion at the jetty results in damage of the trawlers parked.
Sitakant complainted that the trawlers parked at the jetty collide into each other with huge waves, strong currents and winds, which lead to their damage.
Of the total trawler boats, 250 are made of wood while remaining are fiber boats which require proper maintenance.
Ironically, ever since Malim jetty was constructed in the year 1996, upto now it has been debarred from water supply despite connection from the Public Works Department (PWD). The jetty users daily require atleast two-lakh litres of water, which they obtain from water tankers.
“The taps are run dry everyday. The society pays for the water tankers daily, which in turn is paid to the society by the trawler owners depending on the volume of water they utilize,” he said adding that their Ice Plant utilizes nearly 50,000 litres of water, everyday.
Insisting on the maintenance and amenities at the existing jetty, Parab brought to notice the need for a ‘Fish Selling Platform’.
“Number of trucks are parked inside the jetty creating a chaos during fish auction, every morning. To avoid this, we have requested the government to provide us with platforms,” he stated further adding that several recommendations to the fisheries ministry did not help. “We were given only assurances.”
Subsides offered by the government however alleviates the encumbrance. The association receives reimbursement for diesel. “We pay Rs 5.60 (market rate) for one-litre of diesel, which the government refunds later,” he said.
The trawlers owners expect this season to be fruitful. As per figures, the total catch at the Malim jetty from April 2008 to March 2009 was 11,500 tones.
He however claimed the society was in profit as it was outfitted with diesel pumps, ice plant, a spare part shop, grocery, workshops, medical facilities, etc. for trawler owners and its workers.
Meanwhile, out of the total labourers working on the trawlers and jetty, atleast 40% workers hail from Karnataka and Orissa each, while the remaining constitute of labours from Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and even Nepal (as they can enter India without a visa).
Besides, under the ‘new welfare schemes for safety of the fishermen’, proposed by the government lately, Parab informed that they received five complimentary ‘Distress Alert Transmitters’ (DAT) from the Coast Guard.
“These are on a trial basis, following which every trawler owner will have to purchase this transmitter.
DAT would benefit the workers on fishing vessels, as it is directly connected to the satellite.
During any emergency the fishermen can press the button of the instrument, and the satellite signal would reach the Coast Guard showing the exact location of the vessel to conduct rescue operation.
