Trout fish farmers seek relief to restart work

Dipender MantaTribune News Service

Advertisement

Mandi, March 18

The Trout Fish Farmers’ Association, Kullu, has sought compensation and fingerlings (seed) for flood-affected farmers to revive trout fish farming in the district. In 2018, flash floods had damaged several fish farms in Kullu district.

The association president has also written a letter to the Principal Secretary of the Fisheries Department and urged the official to look into the matter and take necessary steps to provide assistance to the farmers.

Fish farmers said the department had imported 10 lakh seeds (known as idova, the egg of fish) from Denmark, while it was planning to import 5 lakh seeds more in the coming days.

Shakti Singh, president of the association, said the Director-cum-Warden, Fisheries, had made a statement that the imported seeds would be made available to department farms first and the remaining would be distributed to farmers. “Despite our repeated requests, the authorities have not provided trout seeds to the flood-affected farmers. The authorities are giving excuses that the Patlikuhl farm is dysfunctional. Besides Patlikuhl, there are many other government farms in the state where the seed is produced. We fail to understand why the Director-cum-Warden is not paying heed to our plea,” he said.

He said they had written a letter to the Principal Secretary of the Fisheries Department and sought his intervention.

When contacted, Director (Fisheries) Satpal Mehta said he was aware about the grievances of farmers. The department had already imported 10 lakh seeds from Denmark, while additional five lakh seed would soon be imported. “My priority will be to provide seeds to each fish farmer of the state and arrangements will be made accordingly,” he said.