A CORRESPONDENT
BOKAKHAT: With the aim of producing high quality fish fry, Atul Bora, MLA of Bokakhat constituency and a Cabinet Minister, set up a fish-seed production centre at the Bokakhat Fish Farm. However, the centre is now being misused rather than producing fingerlings.
Inaugurated by Minister Bora on August 24, 2023, the centre, built at a cost of Rs 7.3 million by Assam’s Fisheries Department, has already seen the theft of many valuable items.
Due to the department’s alleged negligence, the facility has effectively become a ‘white elephant.’ News of this waste of government funds has sparked fierce public outrage across the entire sub-division. Instead of fish fry, one now finds the remnants of alcohol, charas, and other drugs at the centre.
Local residents allege that as soon as night falls, groups gather inside the hatchery tanks to drink, smoke, and consume narcotics, severely degrading the environment.
Following the theft of the main water pump motor and other equipment installed for water supply, the Golaghat District Fisheries Officer filed an FIR at the Bokakhat Police Station. It is especially noteworthy that, although Minister Bora demonstrated fish-seed production on the very day of inauguration, no such production has taken place since.
Locals and several civic organizations are demanding accountability and condemned both the misuse of public funds and the Fisheries Department’s apparent incompetence and lax security at the centre.
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