Fisheries and Livestock Adviser Farida Akhter has said hilsa is our resource, yet because of its high price ordinary people cannot eat it. "This is a great injustice. We must try to find a way out of this injustice," she said.

She was speaking at noon on Saturday, 5 October, at an awareness meeting with fishers and stakeholders at various levels at Sureshwar launch terminal in Naria upazila, Shariatpur, ahead of the drive to protect mother hilsa.

Farida Akhter said: "If we respect the hilsa breeding season and can protect the hilsa resource, hilsa will increase in the rivers, and that will create a chance to bring its price down in the market. You must give us that chance."

She said: "You (the fishers) have demanded that Sureshwar ghat be developed as a fish ghat. I promise that, after talking to BFDC, Sureshwar ghat will be developed into a fish landing centre."

"Where fishers used to get 25 kg of rice each under the 22-day VGF programme, we are arranging 30 kg of rice each for them," she added.

Present were Fisheries and Livestock Secretary Sayed Mahmud Belal Haider, Department of Fisheries Director General Md Zillur Rahman, Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute Director General Dr Anuradha Bhadra, acting Deputy Commissioner Sadia Zerin and Superintendent of Police Md Nazrul Islam.

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