A petition has been submitted to the government seeking directions for hilsa to be cut and sold in pieces in markets during the peak season, so that people of every class and profession can eat the national fish. Describing hilsa in today's expensive market as a "consumer good of the upper class", the petition says that if it were sold in pieces, the middle class, the lower-income class and the poor could eat it too.

Supreme Court lawyer Shahidul Islam submitted the petition on Wednesday (27 August) to the secretary of the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock and other officials concerned. He confirmed it to Jago News himself.

The petition says hilsa, the national fish, is a symbol of national pride and a priceless part of Bangladesh's culture and heritage, and its presence at social, religious and family occasions is part of our way of life. Yet ordinary people, especially the middle and lower-income classes, cannot eat hilsa even in the peak season.

Until the 1990s a family could easily buy hilsa at the market, but today its price is beyond the reach of ordinary people. One of the main reasons is that there is no government-set fair price, so traders fix prices as they please, the petition says.

It adds that because there is no arrangement for selling hilsa in pieces, buyers cannot purchase small amounts, such as one or two pieces, which confines hilsa to the upper class. In reality, fishermen who catch hilsa enjoy various government projects, subsidies and benefits, while ordinary consumers are denied the right to buy hilsa at a fair price.

Hilsa is a natural resource that breeds and grows naturally in the sea and rivers, with almost no production cost, yet its abnormal price rise in the peak season is a matter of pain for the nation, the petition says. If ordinary people are deprived of hilsa, it will gradually become confined to one class, which is in no way desirable.

Considering all this, the petition seeks the ministry's attention and appropriate steps to strengthen market monitoring, bring hilsa prices under control, publicise sales information to the public, and introduce mandatory sale of hilsa in pieces in markets.

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