Curtains came down on yet another fishing season but traditional fishermen from the fishing village of Benaulim are still at sea. With the 61-day fishing ban coming into force from June 1, the fishermen have all pulled their canoes on the shore. In fact, one may come across dozens of country-made fishing canoes anchored all along the Benaulim coast.
Reason: The fishermen have no dedicated space to anchor their country-made fishing boats as their demand for space at the defunct government-owned Benaulim shrimp hatchery to house their fishing boats and nets has fallen on the government’s deaf ears. What has left the beleaguered fishermen agitated is that the prawn hatchery property, measuring 50,000 square metres, is proposed to be leased out to private players for the development of shrimp farming. In fact, despite repeated pleas by the fishermen seeking the land of the prawn hatchery, the government seems unmoved, only dishing out empty promises to meet the demands of the fishermen, but in vain.
A Traditional Fisherman’s Statement Says traditional fisherman Pele: “We traditional fishermen are forced to anchor our fishing boats right on the coast for want of dedicated space to anchor our vessels. We have been knocking on the doors of the government to give the local fishermen around 5,000 square metres of land at the prawn hatchery. But, the government has drawn up other plans to give the hatchery on lease on a public-private partnership model.”
Like many traditional fishermen, Pele wonders why the government is rushing to give the hatchery property on lease when the fishermen have been asking for a portion of the land for their fishing activities. “If the government had to allot us the land, it would have gone a long way to give a further boost to our fishing activities. Apart from anchoring our fishing vessels at the property, the land in question would have helped us to do net mending and to set up cold storage facilities,” he said. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant Assures To Look Into The Matter Hopes were raised in December last that the fishermen may get the land in question for their fishing activities when Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had assured Pele that the government would look into the issue. Around two months ago, the traditional fishermen led by Pele again called on the Chief Minister with a host of demands, including the long-pending demand of Benaulim fishermen to the government to allot 5,000 square metres of the prawn hatchery land to the fishermen. Read Also
“The Chief Minister had told the delegation to submit the demand in writing to the Fisheries department and his office. We hope that the government would take note of the long-pending demand and do the needful,” Pele added. Incidentally, while the government had invited Expression of Interest (EOI) from prospective bidders to submit their projects to develop the Benaulim prawn hatchery, the fate of the project remains unknown. Against the backdrop, Benaulim fishermen have demanded that the government should set up a fisheries museum at the Benaulim prawn hatchery instead of leasing out the prime property to private parties after allotting land admeasuring 5000 squares to the local fishermen to pursue fishing activity.