Manikganj Correspondent :
A district level awareness workshop was held in Manikganj under the Hilsa Resource Development and Management Project on Tuesday. Manikganj Deputy Commissioner Abdul Latif was the Chief Guest in the joint arrangement of the district Manikganj District administration and the Department of Fisheries.
District Fisheries Officer Saifur Rahmanpresided over the function where Project Director Zia Haider Chowdhury, ADC-General Sanowarul Haque, Deputy Director of Fisheries Department Dhaka Division Zillur Rahman, Senior Additional Superintendent of Police (DSB) Nasir Uddin Mallick, Sadar Senior Upazila Fisheries Officer Zahirul Islam Akand spoke. ShirinSheela presented the keynote paper.
Hilsa resource development and management project director Zia Haider Chowdhury said the government has taken a project worth Tk 246.27crore to increase the production of one lakh tonnes of hilsa fish. If this project is implemented, the current year’s production will increase from five and a half million tons to six and a half million tons.
He further said that in order to conserve mother hilsa and jatka, the production of hilsa should be increased through implementation of fisheries law and creation of alternative employment opportunities for hilsafishermen. At the same time, it is necessary to increase the production of hilsa through the management of sanctuaries.
The workshop he also informed that alternative employment arrangements would be made for the families of 30,000 fishermen catching jatka and motherhilsa.
The speakers said that 80 per cent of the hilsa available in the world is produced in Bangladesh. It carries one of the identities of Bangladesh in the world as the country of Hilsa. The government sends this hilsa fish as a gift to different countries of the world including India.
