the goan I network
MARGAO
Two mega fish markets may soon witness a turnaround from stench and filth “ Goa’s wholesale fish market and the SGPDA’s retail fish market.
As the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation is pumping in around Rs 15 crore to spruce up these fish markets at the initiative of TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai, fish loving Goans have a question or two for the government which in its Common Minimum Programme had promised to subsidise fish, pao and coconut given that xitt koddi is the staple diet of Goemkars -- Is there any hope of getting affordable fish in the local markets?
This question may come to haunt the government as fish turns dearer with each passing day, more so during the two months of monsoons when the 61-day ban on fishing brings fishing to a halt.
What’s interesting to note is that the TCP Minister in his maiden address at the official June 18 Goa Revolution Day function at the Lohia Maidan last year had promised to subsidise coconut, fish and pao. A year down the line, while coconut was made available at a subsidised price by the government to tide over the acute shortage and to contain resentment amongst the people, there’s still no word from the TCP Minister or the govt in making fish and pao available at subsidised rates.
When this question was posed to the TCP Minister, Sardesai said the issue needs to be addressed by taking so many aspects, including the stakeholders into confidence. “Right now, I have taken up the exercise of sprucing up the Goa’s wholesale fish market which symbolized stench and filth. The process is to spruce up the market since people from all over Goa visit the wholesale fish market every morning for their daily fish purchase. Similarly, the government has taken up the SGPDA fish market for a spruce up for the benefit of not just people from Margao or Fatorda, but Salcete in general”, he said.
The TCP Minister said the question of making available fish at affordable rates to Goans needs a thorough study before coming to a decision.
While the wholesale fish market is being taken up at an estimated cost of around Rs 13 crore, it will cost the exchequer around Rs two crore to spruce up the SGPDA market.
The issue of subsidy had come to the fore during Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s previous stint in office in 2012. Then Fisheries Minister Avertano Furtado came with a novel way of taking the fish to the door steps of the people in certain areas, including Navelim constituency, by deploying mobile fish vans.
