Second incident in a month leaves traditional fishermen furious; Colva Police register FIR
MARGAO
In an incident which has raised eyebrows and left the traditional fishermen from Benaulim agitated, miscreants set afire two country-made fishing boats along with fishing nets at the Vaddi beach, Benaulim in the wee hours of Sunday, destroying property worth lakhs of rupees.
This is the second incident to take place on the Benaulim beach belt, with the previous incident of fire to two fishing canoes taking place earlier this month on February 14 last.
Both the fishing canoes belonged to a single owner, Casean Fernandes, who claimed that he has sustained loss of around Rs 15 lakh caused by the destruction of the canoes and the fishing nets.
The incident is believed to have taken place at around 2.30 am on Sunday. When the incident came to light, the owner along with other fishermen tried to extinguish the fire with water and sand. By the time the Margao fire brigade turned up at the site, damage was already caused to the canoes.
Casean told the media that one boat was completely gutted in the fire, while the second one also sustained major damage. “My canoes have been set afire by miscreants. One of our men saw a miscreant first putting fire to one canoe, before moving towards the second one,” he said.
He said the fire brigade came to the site, but it was too late to salvage the boats and the nets.
He added: “It is clear that someone has set my canoes and nets on fire. We have informed the police to investigate and bring the culprits to book.”
Local fishermen said the Colva police should have by now resolved the fire incident reported at the Benaulim beach on February 14 when two canoes were set afire. “If the police had to lay their hands on the CCTV footage, and nabbed the miscreants, the latest incident would not have taken place,” remarked a local fisherman.
Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas, who also rushed to the spot after he was intimated of the incident, said the two fire incidents is a call for the fishermen to unite and to demand that the CCTV cameras are in working condition. He said while the GTDC has installed the cameras, the same have not been taken over by the police.
“On Monday, I will write to Tourism Minister, Rohan Khaunte and the Director General of Police to check the cameras installed at the beach. I also appeal to the Fisheries Minister to come out with subsidised insurance premium to help fishermen go for insurance of their fishing gear.”
The MLA urged the Colva police to nab the culprits involved in the two incidents and ensure such incidents are not repeated in the future.
Colva police station in-charge, PI Theron D’Costa said the police have registered an FIR against unknown persons for mischief by fire. He said the police had requisitioned a sniffer dog to assist in the investigations.
