MARGAO
While the Goa government has hiked benefits under the Dayanand Social Security Scheme (DSSS) by Rs 500 and included new beneficiaries, retired seafarers and their widows continue to await the promised Rs 1,000 monthly pension hike and permanent status for their scheme.
Retired seafarers are now wondering whether the promised hike will materialise only if they support the BJP in the 2027 Assembly elections. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had reportedly promised to increase their monthly pension by Rs 1,000 if they backed the party.
Former Goan Seamen Association of India (GSAI) president Frank Viegas questioned the government’s failure to fulfil the seafaring community’s long-pending demand for enhanced pension benefits.
“Leave alone the contribution of the seafaring community to Goa’s economy, the government cannot forget the contribution of seamen during the Covid pandemic and the recent USA-Israel conflict in the Gulf of Hormuz,” Viegas said.
He also pointed out that the National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI) had handed over its infrastructure, including buildings at Panzorconne, Cuncolim, to facilitate the setting up of an ESI medical college.
Questioning the reported political condition attached to the pension hike, Viegas said enhanced benefits should be extended without any political considerations. He also sought to know why the government had failed to make the scheme permanent despite repeated assurances by Sawant.
Introduced by former chief minister Manohar Parrikar after the BJP came to power in 2012, the scheme was discontinued around 2019 after the five-year tenure. Sawant subsequently revived it, but the government is yet to make it permanent or announce the promised pension increase.
