MARGAO
The Cutbona fishing jetty took the centre stage as a host of issues plaguing the fishing hub, right from sewerage and sanitation, to the abandoned vessels lying at the jetty came up at the crucial meeting chaired by Sub-divisional Magistrate, Margao Jyoti Kumari on Wednesday.
After deliberations and discussions, Jyoti Kumari has fixed a joint inspection of the fishing jetty with all the stakeholders, including fisheries and health officials, besides, panchayat and activists to solve all the issues plaguing the fishing jetty.
Pinning hopes on Jyoti Kumari to address the burning issues at the jetty, including sanitary and sewerage disposal and the threat posed to the residents by vector borne diseases, sources said the time has come for the authorities to crack the whip and get the concerned departments to put in place the measures within a deadline.
The failure by the fisheries department to tow away the abandoned vessels at the jetty, which now threatens to become breeding ground for vector borne diseases, was taken cognizance of at the meeting, with the stakeholders insisting on action rather than issuing show cause notices to the owners.
The question of the delay in formally inaugurating the additional portion of the fishing jetty also came up for discussions.
Jyoti Kumari told the media after the meeting that an inspection of the Cutbona fishing jetty has been fixed for June 15 which will help understand all the issues plaguing the jetty.
Velim Sarpanch Savio D’Silva said the Cutbona fishing jetty is neglected by the fisheries department, with all the issues, right from sanitation to sewage disposal and the abandoned vessels lying unattended for years now. “The Fisheries director has claimed to have issued show cause notice to the owners of the abandoned vessels a year ago. We are not looking at the show cause notices, but concrete action so that the scrap vessels are towed away from the jetty”, said Savio.
He further pointed out that the office of the deputy Collector, Margao has only had meetings after meetings over the issues plaguing Cutbona, lamenting that no solution has been forthcoming till date.
GOACAN coordinator, Roland Martins, who attended the meeting along with members of the Velim Civic and Consumer Forum, said the meeting discussed the entire gamut of issues facing the Cutbona jetty. “We have insisted on an action plan to resolve the issues, including sewerage and sanitation, besides the abandoned vessels. The June 15 inspection will help in verifying the ground reality before the authorities call for action”, he said, while insisting on both short term and long solutions to address the issues facing the jetty.
