MARGAO
The Goa Forward Party has slammed the Goa Government and the Fisheries Department for adopting a policy to systematically take away the rights of the traditional Goan fishing community and hand it over to non-Goans along with employment opportunities and schemes which are rightfully that of Goans.
GFP president Vijai Sardesai stated that the Fisheries department notified modifications to the Goa State Mariculture Policy 2020 on June 8, 2022.
“This policy was introduced to promote and regulate cage fishing in Goa. The eligibility criteria at the time of notifying the policy in 2020 was that the applicant for the offshore aquaculture license must, according to clause 8(a) of the policy, be a resident of the State of Goa. After two years in abeyance, the government decided to modify this clause policy by allowing any citizen of India to be eligible for the aquaculture license,” he said.
Sardesai said the policy was launched to generate gainful rural employment for fishing communities, to develop skills and organizational strengthening among self-help groups etc. Under this policy, applicants can also avail of a subsidy for cages to set up cage fishing.
“Many of the local stakeholders like Raponnkars are unhappy with this scheme. They fear they will be stopped from fishing or sailing through the waters around the offshore aquaculture fishing areas,” he said.
He said the policy entails demarcation of zones in the sea close to the shore and leased out to aquaculture license holders.
“The aquaculture sites cause pollution that can prevent other fish from swimming in these waters. Raponkars fear that this will lead to a further reduction in their catch. Instead of taking the stakeholders into confidence, the government is threatening the livelihood of these local fishermen in favour of non-Goan mariculture investors,” he charged.
Interestingly, he pointed out that the new notification has added a new clause stating that the cage fishing operator should engage at least ten local manpower/fishermen for the cage culture activity. "This clause is meant to fool people. There is no mechanism in place to check for violations nor is there any penalty clause for violating this condition in the policy," he said.
