Fishermen demand relief, hold protest

Our Correspondent

Nurpur, January 16

As many as 2,800 fishermen dependent on the Pong wetland are a harried a lot, as now they have no means of livelihood after fishing was banned in the lake. The fishermen, who are members of 16 fisheries cooperative societies, held a protest at Guglara near the wetland last evening against the government apathy in providing compensation to them for losing their source of livelihood due to the bird flu outbreak.

The district administration banned fishing after the outbreak of avian flu (H5N1) on January 3. After rendering jobless the fishermen have been demanding compensation against restricted fishing in the wetland.

Vijay Kumar, Sat Pal, Rajinder, Manoj, Subhash, Rakesh, Inder Pal, Karam Chand, Veer Singh and Ashwani Kumar, who participated in the protest, lamented that after fishing was banned, they were facing immense hardships in sustaining their families. “Our fishing nets are in the wetland, as we could not collect them after one kilometre wetland radius was suddenly declared as a red zone on January 3. All activities, including the movement of human beings and livestock, have been banned in the area to contain the spread of bird flu,” they said.

Praveen Kumar, Kewal Kumar and Ashok, presidents of Khatiyar, Sthana and Sihal fisheries cooperative societies, respectively, said that water samples of the Pong wetland had been found to be not contaminated in the test conducted by the Jal Shakti Department. “The district administration should immediately lift the ban on fishing so that they could earn their livelihood by catching fish in the wetland. The state government should consider the demand for compensation of fishermen,” they added.

Meanwhile, Sat Pal Mehta, Director, Fisheries Department, Bilaspur, said that the department had submitted a proposal to the government for the grant of compensation to the fishermen affected by restrictions imposed on fishing in the Pong wetland.

Caption: Fishermen protest at Guglara near the Pong wetland on Friday in support of their demand for compensation. Tribune photo