Its victory for traditional fishermen in Zuari river!

Bharat Mukti Morcha (BMM) congratulates Goa Fisheries Minister Vinod Palyenkar on effective action taken  to crackdown on illegal fishing in Zuari river based on complaints from traditional fishermen. Mr. Palyenkar on September 08, 2017 acted efficiently and issued note threatening departmental action against the officer concerned and the Director of Fisheries.

This note was followed by recommendation to the State Government suspension of Director of Fisheries Shamila Monteiro on September 14, 2017. Fishermen on Zuari coast from Siridao, Bambolim, Nauxim, Cacra, and Odxel has been petitioning Department of Fisheries from 2013 onwards on various issues threatening Fishing in Zuari but department did not act. In fact Shamila Monteiro’s tenure as Director of Fisheries is marked with series of U-turns.  She worked very hard to cancel the fuel subsidies of traditional fishermen. Subsidies must be retained back. Her illegalities are huge and she should never be allowed back to harass the traditional fishermen as enough is enough for what she did from 2014 till her suspension in 2017.

She repeatedly played pranks on traditional fishermen with regard to Patrol boats to stop illegal fishing. It was on regular basis that Patrol boats from the Fisheries department as well as from marine police were highly irresponsible to function in spite of repeated phone calls from the traditional fishermen.

Mr.Vinod Palyekar, Minister for Fisheries and WRD has proved in action to understand the Zuari river. He has demonstrated that he is responsible to root out prevailing corruption from Fisheries department and provide Justice to traditional Fishermen. This trend of Mr. Vinod Palyenkar is highly appreciated by the traditional fishermen.

BMM maintains that performance of current Fisheries Minister Vinod Palyenkar is better than his predecessor Avertano Furtado who betrayed traditional fishermen in river Zuari.