Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (SP)

Kundapur, Dec 13: There seems to be no end in sight for the tussle between Karnataka fishermen and Goa government officials. It has come to light that on Sunday December 9, the Goan officials intercepted a vehicle from Karwar that was loaded with 1.5 tonnes of fish worth ten lac rupees, and threw the fish into the dustbin. The vehicle carrying fish had obtained permission at the Goa border with Karnataka before entering that state.

It appears that the government in Goa is again into some kind of mischief about import of fish from Uttara Kannada and coastal Karnataka. This has created new bottleneck in sending fish to Goa.

The fish in question, which belonged to Ramanna from Karwar, was loaded in insulated vehicle with FDA clearance. With the permission of food department of Goa, it was being taken to Atlas Company located at Panaji when it was stopped at the Goan border. The food officials took the fish to the office of Atlas at Panaji and kept it there for two days. Even though at the end it was clear that the fish did not contain any formalin, the officials did not allow the vehicle to move. They threw the entire consignment of fish into the municipal dustbin.

It is gathered that the Goan officials have been allowing fish from Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh unbridled entry into the state. At the same time, they stop vehicles coming in from Karnataka for over 90 minutes. Fishermen from Uttara Kannada and Dakshina Kannada, who are losing heavily because of this attitude, have complained that in spite of the fact that Goan officials have been meting out step-motherly treatment to fishermen from Karnataka, Karnataka government is blind to the problem and it has not bothered to take these things seriously.

Because of the officials from Goa who stop vehicles carrying fish for hours on end at the border and create problems for their forward movement, the fishermen from coastal Karnataka have now been dithering from sending fish to Goa, it is gathered.