Jatka Conservation Campaign is set to fail in Lakshmipur as fishermen are not getting the amount of rice the government had originally earmarked for them, forcing them to go fishing in the river.
Fishermen were to be given 40 kilograms of rice per month from March to June to keep them from catching Jatka -juvenile hilsa up to 23 cm long in the Meghna during the March-April period.
But Charromoni Mohon Union Parishad Chairman Abu Yusuf Saiyal is giving a fisherman only 25 to 27 kilogrammes of rice, embezzling the rest, in the union’s Mojuchoudhuryhat area, they say.
District and Upazila fisheries officials are colluding with him in this dishonest activity as they get a share of it too, they add.
Rice was doled out to government-registered 2950 fishermen in the area in first installment yesterday.
Our correspondent has visited the site and also found the authenticity of the allegation.
He found that Union Parishad Chairman Saiyal was distributing rice among the fishermen in presence of Sadar Upazila Fisheries Officer Sunil Chandra Ghosh.
Fishermen Mohin Uddin, Md Shahid, Md Hossain and some other fishermen say they were being given 25 to 27 kilograms of rice at the beginning.
As this came to the light and the fishermen expressed outrage, the chairman started distributing 30 to 32 kilograms of rice, they said.
Sadar Upazila General Secretary Chowdhury Majhi of Bangladesh Small Fishermen Association say, “We are not being given what we deserve.”
“We have been given only 25 to 27 kilograms of rice since morning. This is hardly enough for running a fisherman’s family and so they cannot but go catching Jatka in the river now.”
Asked about this, Union Parishad Chairman Saiyal denied the allegation, passing the buck to godown officials.
“A sack of 50 kilograms of rice is given to me as that of 51 kilograms from the godown,” he said, adding, “They do not exclude the weight of a sack of rice when weighing it.” “Besides this, they may be given a bit less rice than what they deserve to make up the cost of labour and transportation,” he said.
Sadar Upazila Food Godown Officer-in-Charge Md Mahbubul Alam say, “We release rice from here after correctly weighing it. There should not be any shortage of rice in a sack.”
Sadar Upazila Fisheries Officer Ghosh say, “We are distributing rice as per rules. There may be some fluctuations in weight, but that should not be significant.”