Trawler owners may face curbs

NT NETWORK

 

PANAJI

Admitting that some of the owners of the trawlers registering their vessels with the department of fisheries could misuse the facilities provided to them by the department, Fisheries Minister Vinod Paliencar said  the government intends to permit only two trawlers to be registered in the name of one person.

“Presently, a total of 1,104 fishing trawlers are registered with the department of fisheries,” he added.

The government gives out crores of rupees worth fuel subsidy to the owners of fishing trawlers, whose vessels are registered with the department of fisheries.

Coming out with this written information before the state legislative assembly, Paliencar said  the move was undertaken to restrict the number of fishing vessel with an individual fisherman as also to protect the marginal fishermen who are forced to sell their vessel to wealthier fishermen thereby rending himself out of the fishing activities.

“The government, in this way, also intends to restrict and regulate the number of fishing vessels on jetties with limited space, and help in sustainable management of the fishermen resources by granting permission to construct new fishing vessels, replacing the old ones,” he added.

The written reply states that another reason for restricting the fishing vessels per person is “the department of fisheries does not have backup space on jetties for providing additional facilities to the fishing vessels as there is no expansion of jetties”.

It was also informed the related guidelines have come into force with effect from January 1, 2018.

“The state department of fisheries has a jurisdiction of up to 12 nautical miles from the Goan coastline,” the Fisheries Minister maintains in his reply,

 

 

further admitting that the government is unaware

about states like Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, etc, where the number of trawlers exceeds 20 to 30 times that of Goa, are encouraging fishermen to build more trawler and are giving subsidies.

Furthermore, Paliencar mentions that the department of fisheries does not maintain details about the total average quantity of fish that arrives from other states for sale in Goa with month-wise average figures, for the past three years, along with names of the places from where it arrives.

In another written reply, he states that the department of fisheries is in the process of forming Fisheries Corporation in the state in order to provide fish at reasonable rate to the locals.