the goan I network
MARGAO
Exactly 40 years after the Seafarer’s Welfare Fund Society, Mumbai had introduced the financial scheme for registered foreign-going seamen and widows, the Monthly Ex-gratia Monetary Assistance (MEMA) is set to be finally withdrawn with effect from July 1, 2018 due to “cessation” of the welfare fund.
Seamen’s association has slammed the decision, saying they do not at all agree with the decision to close the scheme.
Under the MEMA scheme, a retired seafarer was entitled for a ex-gratia relief of Rs 200 per month and upon his death to his nominee wife an amount of Rs 400 a month as financial assistance.
The MEMA welfare scheme is implemented from the MEMA welfare fund, which the management now says has been continuously depleting and it becomes difficult for the Seafarer’s Welfare Fund Society to further continue with the scheme.
In this context, the society has now decided to pay a one-time lump sum amount of Rs 12,500 to each of the beneficiaries, who are registered with the SWFS for the MEMA Welfare till May 31, 2018.
Many a retired seafarer in Goa have started receiving letters from the Seafarer’s Welfare Fund Society informing them about the decision to withdraw the MEMA welfare scheme. The beneficiaries have been requested to fill up a one-time lumpsum form with all details and send the same to the Mumbai office of the society. The duly filled up forms should reach the office of the Society on or before September 30, 2018.
Sources in the know said the decision to withdraw the MEMA scheme was taken at the 86th Committee of Management (COP) held in April last. The Society has been running the scheme since April 1978 to registered foreign-going seamen and their families. Under the scheme, a sum of Rs 200 per month is being remitted to the seafarer for his life time and Rs 400 per month to the widow for her life time.
Goan seafarers have been waging a sustained battle over the years demanding a hike in the monthly ex-gratia monetary assistance from the existing Rs 200 to minimum Rs 5,000 per month.
The issue was taken up in Delhi with successive Union Shipping Ministers for their intervention given that the Seafarer’s Welfare Fund Society had been expressing its inability to hike the ex-gratia monthly assistance for want of funds.
After seeing the plight of the retired seafarers and their widows, the Goa government had in 2012 introduced the pension scheme for the retired seafarers and their widows by paying a monthly pension of Rs 2,500 per month.
Meanwhile, Goan Seamen Association of India spokesperson Dixon Vaz said the unilateral decision taken by the Seafarer’s Welfare Fund Society is totally unacceptable to the seafarers community.
“We completely disagree with the decision. The fund was created from the hard earned money of the seafarers. We reject the decision and we will discuss the next course of action,” Dixon said, while demanding the intervention of the government in the matter.
