MARGAO
As Chief Minister Pramod Sawant sought to revive the shrimp and fin fish hatchery project in Public Private Partnership (PPP) model on the government acquired-10 acre land at Benaulim via the 2023-24 Budget, traditional fishermen have red flagged the project again, as they vowed to oppose the project tooth and nail.
In his budget speech on the floor of the House while placing the 2023-24 budget estimates, the Chief Minister has announced setting up of the shrimp and fin fish hatchery project on the 10-acre defunct Benaulim prawn hatchery land.
The traditional fishermen from Benaulim, however, say the shrimp and fin fish hatchery project mooted through the PPP model is the very same project, which they had vehemently opposed a little over two years ago on the ground that the project has been mooted with a sinister design to hand over the prime sea facing land close to the Benaulim beach to the private players.
In fact, the fishermen had staked claim on a portion of the government-acquired land to meet their fishing requirements, including anchoring of fishing canoes, fishing nets during the monsoons, besides space to sell fish.
Says Benaulim fisherman Pele Fernandes: “We fail to understand why the government is still pursuing the shrimp and fin fish project at the defunct Benaulim prawn hatchery land by roping in private players. When the traditional fishermen have been demanding with the government to allot space admeasuring 5,000 square metres in the acquired property to pursue their traditional occupation, we have still received no communique from the Fisheries Department till date.”
He added: “If this sea facing land is given to the private players for the so-called shrimp and fin fish hatchery, the traditional fisherman from the village will have no other place other than the shore to anchor their boats and fishing nets”.
That’s not all. When the Fisheries department had in early August 2020 floated an Expression of Interest inviting bidders to set up a state of the art shrimp and fin fish hatchery on PPP model, the Niz Ramponkarncho Ekvott (NRE) had mooted a state-of-the-art “Fishing Activity Village” in the 10-acre plot of land. In fact, the NRE had opposed the total hand over of the Benaulim prawn hatchery land to the private player, insisting the government should reserve for the NRE a 20 per cent stake in the 10 acre project.
