Fisheries Director’s decision to dispense with COVID-19 certificate for migrant labourers descending at the Cutbona fishing jetty has not found favour with the health authorities.
A day after Fisheries Director, Dr Shamila Monteiro issued a letter to the Fisheries officers, informing them that carrying of test for COVID-19 is not mandatory for the crew members while entering fishing jetty and also while venturing into the sea for fishing, the Primary Health officials have completely begged to differ with the Fisheries Director.
The Balli Primary Health Officer Dr Tulsimamata Kakodkar dashed off a letter to the South Goa district Collector, Ajit Roy categorically stating that testing of all labourers entering the Cutbona fishing jetty should be made compulsory along with other measures such as social distancing and mask wearing.
Drawing the attention of the district Collector that migrant labourers have started coming to the Cutbona jetty, the Health Officer said the labourers should be compulsorily tested for COVID-19 entering the jetty.
The Health Officer further pointed out that the health workers would be preoccupied with the task of screening of the migrant labourers, coming in thousands to the fishing jetty, for vector borne diseases like malaria, dengue, etc in order to prevent its outbreak and spread to the locals.
The Health Officer’s correspondence assumes significance and comes against the backdrop of the fact that thousands of migrant labourers would be descending at the Cutbona fishing jetty after the resumption of train services and communication services.
Sources in the Health department, however, pointed out that it is now for the office of the South Goa district Collector to take a call on making COVID certificates mandatory for the migrant labourers before they descend at the jetties. “The health department has made its apprehensions clear to the district Collector on arrival of migrant crew at the jetty without the COVID certificates. We have made our stand clear and now it is up to the district authorities to take a call,” informed a health worker.
In fact, local residents of Cutbona had raised serious concerns at the beginning of the new fishing season in August over the arrival of the migrant labourers to work on the fishing vessels, apprehending that any laxity in checking the workers may affect the residential locality.
In fact, based on the appeal made by the local residents, the boat owners operating from Cutbona fishing jetty, more so the purse seine vessel owners, had assured not to venture out in the sea during the entire month of August and would commence the fishing operations only from September 1.
Local residents have already raised questions whether they would be all safe from coronavirus if the migrant workers from the states of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Jharkhand just descend at the fishing jetty without a COVID certificate.
