KATHUA: Joint Director Fisheries Mohammad Manzoor Wani today conducted an extensive tour of District Kathua to take stock of the ongoing harvesting and stocking of water ponds. Chief Project Officer, National Fish Seed Farm, Kathua Gopal Krishan, Assistant Director Fisheries, Kathua Lal Hussain also accompanied the Joint Director, Fisheries.
The officers visited various community and private ponds where harvesting and stocking work is currently going on. While interacting with elected PRIs, the Joint Director was apprised by the Sarpanches that the community ponds are harvested by following proper Auctioning through Panchayat and amount realized is being utilized for the development of Panchayat besides improvement of the pond. On the occasion, Private pond owners gave satisfactory feedback in respect to the quantity of fish harvested. One farmer namely Ashwani Trehan appraised that as per his opinion fish culture is quite profitable as it is less labour oriented. The officers also took a fish seed stocking drive of natural water bodies like Ujh Barrage and Ranjit Sagar Reservoir which serve as livelihood for hundreds of families of local fishermen who capture fish as their sole means of livelihood.
During the visit, a detailed discussion was held with village heads regarding realization of revenue from village community ponds on a regular basis and made stocking of these ponds as routine with stocking of fish seeds provided free of cost by the department with technical guidance.
