The state government has pushed marine fisheries but ignored inland fisheries. This has been revealed in a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, that was tabled in the Gujarat Assembly on Wednesday.
The report stated that during 2012-2017, the marine fish production of the state constituted about 20 per cent of the all India marine fish production while inland fish production of the state was little more than one and a half pe rcent of the all Indian inland fish production.
Under inland fisheries, against the potential of 2.49 lakh MT per annum of fish production, the department has so far exploited 45 percent only. In the inland fisheries schemes, the achievement against the target of various sub-schemes ranged from Nil to 421.43 percent.
The audit observed higher achievement in some sub-schemes due to higher demand by beneficiaries under those sub-schemes. In its schemes for development of inland fisheries, the department was not able to meet the requirement of fish seeds, teh reservoirs/ponds were under-utilized and there were delays in schemes oon fish culture cage. As on March 2016, Gujarat ranked 17th in inland fish pr-oduction in India. While the report further stated that the government implemented various schemes to equip the fishermen, infrastructure development projects non-plan scheme of diesel VAT subsidy, upgradation projects financed by National Fisheries Development Boa-rd. Though mandated to regulate, restrict conserve fisheries, the department did not use or amend the provisions of fisheries act to adopt uniform fishing ban period and fixing the limit for berthing of fishing boats, it observed.
REWORKING PLANS
- Report suggested that department needs to revisit plans and programmes and prioritise development if inland fisheries to exploit its potential of inland fisheries.
