State to focus on Blue Revolution to improve fish production

SHILLONG: With the ban on imported fish for 15 days continuing in the state since July 23, the government will submit schemes for the execution of Blue Revolution, an initiative of the Centre, to improve fish production in the state.
Fisheries Minister Comingone Ymbon said on Tuesday that under Blue Revolution, the government will construct more fish ponds, hatcheries and other related ventures.
The Aqua Culture Mission will support this initiative.
At present, there is a shortage of 21,000 metric tonnes (MT) of fish per year whereas the availability is only 12,000 MT.
The minister said before the launch of the Aqua Culture Mission, there were only 4,000 MT of fish in the state.
Though the target under the Aqua Culture Mission, which started five years ago, was construction of 25,000 ponds, over 17,000 fish ponds were constructed.
Majority of the ponds were misused for fishing competition and the government will come up with the required law to prevent such misuse in future.
“We are likely to finalise the law next month to deal with the situation,” he said.
Applications for the construction of 7,000 more ponds are pending with banks as the scheme is linked with bank loans, he said.
While 60 percent is subsidy from the government, 25 percent is the loan component and 15 percent will be the contribution from the beneficiary, the minister said.
Govt to depute teams
Ymbon said the government will also depute experts to find out the source which uses formalin in fish.
“I have asked the officers to find out the source which uses formalin and we will also send a team to Andhra Pradesh. The team will visit different places,” the minister said.