With one low-pressure system after another and hostile weather, Barguna's fishermen often returned to the ghats empty-handed this year. Now that a 22-day ban has begun from Friday midnight, their frustration has doubled, and they are demanding the government's incentive rice at the very start of the ban. The Department of Fisheries has promised to distribute the rice quickly.

According to the Department of Fisheries, catching, transporting, storing and selling hilsa will be completely banned from 4 October to 25 October for the fish's main breeding season. For these 22 days, 37,995 of the district's 48,000 registered fishermen are due to get 25kg of rice each from the government. But fishermen say that because the rice has not arrived even though the ban has started, more than a lakh fishermen will now pass their days in hardship.

In fishing villages across Barguna, fishermen back from sea were busy sorting nets and ropes at the ghats. One group was getting ready to go home, while older men sat mending nets. After all this work they are heading home frustrated and empty-handed, without rice. Although 25kg each is due during the ban, it remains uncertain, so almost a lakh fishermen in Barguna will face hardship during this period.

Abdur Rab of the Noli area of Barguna Sadar, back from sea, told Jagonews24: "The weather at sea was bad this year, so we didn't get good catches. Now the 22-day blockade begins. We have loan instalments every week, and for these days we will have to borrow to pay them. If the government gave us loans on easy terms, we could look after our families."

Complaining that he has not received rice for three years, fisherman Rafiqul told Jagonews24: "For the last three years my name has been on the fisher card list, but I haven't been given the incentive rice. I have told the members in my area many times, and still they didn't give it."

Claiming that Indian fishermen come and take fish from Bangladesh during the ban, Jalil Majhi of the Patharghata area told Jagonews24: "We obey the law and come back to shore, but many people still go to sea illegally at this time. And Indian fishermen come and take the fish. Then when we go to sea after the blockade, we don't find any fish. We call on the government to make sure Indian fishermen cannot enter the sea this year."

Barguna District Fisheries Officer Md Mohsin told Jagonews24 that the incentive rice would be given to all registered fishermen within a week of the allocation arriving. To stop Indian fishermen entering, the Coast Guard and Navy will run drives in the rivers and at the sea estuaries, and this time the Air Force will also carry out aerial surveillance, he said.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.