the goan I network
MARGAO
With just a day to go for the new fishing season to begin on August 1, mechanized boat owners are keeping their fingers crossed with the migrant labour yet to report at the jetty in large numbers. Some boat owners, too, haven’t yet returned from rural Odisha and Jharkhand where they had gone to look for labourers.
A visit to Cutbona jetty, South Goa’s largest fishing hub, revealed that migrant labourers are only reporting at the jetty in small numbers, leaving the boat owners an anxious lot. Those who have already reported are engaged in odd jobs of painting the vessels and pulling the fishing nets into the boats.
Boat owners told The Goan that the delay in the arrival of migrant workforce may play spoilsport for the new fishing season as Goa’s mechanized fishing industry is entirely dependent on the migrant workers, a majority of whom hail from Odisha, Jharkhand, Andha Pradesh, Karnataka, and Kerala.
Martin Fernandes, who owns three fishing vessels, pointed out that with just a few labourers reporting at the jetty all three of his vessels may not be able to venture out to sea.
Owner of two fishing vessels, former Cutbona Boat Owners Union president, Cypriano Cardozo said, “Boat owners are keeping their fingers crossed. Let us wait and see since the industry is totally based on the arrival of the migrant workers.”
President of Cutbona Boat Owners Union Savio D’Silva said, “We are expecting workers to report either on Tuesday or Wednesday.”
It is learnt that the workers from Odisha had committed to report at the jetties only after celebrating their local festivals and after completion of sowing operations.
Sources at the Cutbona jetty told The Goan that a section of mechanized boat owners are of the opinion that since the migrant labourers are expected to hit the fishing jetties only around the first fortnight of August, they will commence their fishing season only around August 15.
