OLD GOA
The Nauxim fishermen have criticised North Goa MP Shripad Naik for supporting the marina project without comprehending the ground reality.
Naik, while addressing a specific media segment, expressed that such projects are necessary in Goa as they are established worldwide. He further asserted that the project would create employment and business opportunities for locals and suggested that the issue was being politicised.
Responding to Naik’s statements, a local, Datta Sankhalkar, questioned whether Naik had ever visited Nauxim to observe how the people are sustaining themselves.
“We are entirely dependent on fishing, a tradition passed down through generations,” Sankhalkar conveyed, emphasizing that their survival would be jeopardized if the marina were permitted.
Another fisherman, Shankar Kuttikar, then asked Naik how many jobs would be provided to locals if the marina were established.
He challenged, “First, find out how many jobs are offered to St. Andre locals in GMC, Goa University, Dental College, and other institutions. You could not provide jobs to locals in these institutions, and you are talking about jobs in a private project? We don’t want such jobs as we are better off with our own business of fishing.”
A member of the All Goa Small Scale Responsible Fisheries Union and a fisherman from Cacra, Sanjay Faterpekar, invited Naik to visit Nauxim and other coastal areas along the belt.
“First, visit these areas, and then talk about your support for the project. Just don’t talk without knowing the ground reality,” Faterpekar urged, adding that the fishermen are not opposing the project for the sake of opposition.
“We are opposing it because it threatens our very survival and the survival of the biodiversity of the Zuari bay.”
Another fisherman then displayed the rare species found in the Nauxim bay, the window pane oysters, which he had freshly gathered.
“Such window pane oysters had gone extinct in the area around 10 years ago, and now they have made a comeback,” Vishwanath explained, highlighting that such species are rarely found elsewhere.
