Govt should purchase fish and sell at subsidised rates: trawler owners

NT NETWORK

MARGAO

Trawler owners feel that the government should buy the fish from them and sell it to the public at subsidised rates.

Executive committee member of Cutbona Boat Owners Co-operative Union (CBOCU) Vinay Tari said, “Why should trawler owners sell their fish at cheap rates? If the government wants to provide cheap fish, it should purchase it from the trawler owners and sell it as subsidised rates.”

Replying to a query that the government is providing subsidy to the trawler owners, he said, the government is providing subsidies for all agriculture-related activities and fishing is also related to agriculture hence the trawler owners are not bound to provide fish at cheap rates.

Meanwhile,  president of the Union Savio D’Silva said that the government should review the proposal to ban export of fish saying that a lot of fish which is not consumed domestically has a market outside Goa hence what would the boat owners do with the fish which is not consumed in the state.

Tari went on to suggest that the government could start providing fish from the Betim jetty and if there is a shortfall it could be drawn from other jetties but a total ban on export will spell doom for the fishing industry. Meanwhile, speaking to this daily on the manifesto promise to provide fish at affordable rates,  Goa Forward Party chief Vijai Sardesai said that “it is just an idea. To provide fish at cheap and affordable rates is a very complex system and will have to recreate the entire horticulture model to make fish as a commodity and trade it. As of now, it is only an idea.”