Prospects for Fisheries

Prospects for Fisheries

Assam has tremendous potential for running very successful fisheries. This is because the State has water bodies of all sizes and also a population that cannot do without fish in the daily menu. What is very inexplicable, therefore, is that instead of being able to export fish, we should be importing fish from Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and other States of India. Only the other day, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal was reiterating the fact that the State’s potential for fisheries was immense in Assam. Speaking at a meeting held in Guwahati to distribute appointment letters to 32 junior engineers of the Fisheries department, he said, ”The fishery sector has immense potential and we must vigorously engage in it for deriving maximum benefits. Assam is blessed with abundant water resources and we have the capacity to become the biggest producer and exporter of fish in the country.” We all realize how true this is, and lament the fact that we did practically nothing in 71 years of independence to build on this God-given blessing of ours. What the Chief Minister of Assam has said now, needed to be said and acted on 70 years ago. But in 70 years the powers that be did nothing even to benefit from a heaven-sent blessing. So today, instead of exporting fish, the State is importing fish from other States and suffering from the consequences of the preservatives that have to be used for preserving the fish long enough even for export to Assam. The situation would be considered ludicrous for a group of people that cannot do without fish but has not managed to work out a means of ensuring that enough fish is available locally for everyone so that we do not have to import fish to a State that should, in all fairness, be exporting fish elsewhere.

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