Malkangiri: Out of the Rs100 crore announced by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik after inaugurating Gurupriya bridge July 26, 2018 for the development of pisciculture as well as the fishing community in the district under the ‘Socio-Economic Transformation and Upliftment’ (SETU) yojana, so far only Rs18 crore has been spent.
SETU yojana is for the development of Swabhiman Anchal, the erstwhile cut-off region in the district, now connected with the mainland.
The residents of the district, including the fishermen, held the district Fisheries department and Odisha Pisciculture Development Corporation (OPDC) responsible for the inability to spend the fund for development.
The assured money was given to the district Fisheries department to increase the production of fish in Chitrakonda, Satiguda and other medium reservoirs. But, the department failed to spend the money. In three years, it could just spend Rs18 crore. At the same time, due to the negligence of the OPDC, hundreds of fishermen are yet to get fishing equipment like fishing boats, nets and life jackets. As of now, they are forced to fish putting them in harm’s way. In the last three years, many fishermen also lost their lives to mishaps as they didn’t have equipment like life jackets.
Meanwhile, some beneficiaries have dug up ponds to produce fish and fingerlings. For these, they either took loans from banks or invested their savings. But the ultimate result was not satisfactory. Since, these ponds failed to produce fingerlings, some traders from other states are producing and selling fingerlings to the fishermen here at exorbitant prices.
Some fishermen alleged the fingerlings sold by traders from other states are of inferior quality.
The onus lies with the OPDC for its failure to set up fingerling production centres in the district. Instead, the OPDC procured fingerlings from Bolangir, Kalahandi, Ganjam and Bhubaneswar and brought them to Malkangiri district, spending extra money on fares. These fingerlings were released in Chitrakonda and Satiguda reservoirs. But, according to the fishermen, these reservoirs don’t have fish of the same fingerlings.
When contacted for his comment in this regard, district Fisheries officer Rajendra Patra said 21 beneficiaries dug up ponds on 16.40 hectares in 2017-18. Of them, six took bank loans and 15 invested their own money. They were given Rs41lakh towards rebate.
Similarly, in 2018-19, 98 beneficiaries availed bank loans and 96 spent their own money to dig up ponds. While ponds were dug up on 69.80 hectares, Rs1.74crore was given to them as rebate. In 2019-20, 77 beneficiaries dug up ponds on 55 hectares and were given Rs 1.37 crore as rebate. As many as 118 beneficiaries dug up ponds on 86.30 hectares and were given a subsidy of Rs 2.15 crore.
“To release 2 crore fingerlings in several reservoirs in the district, the OPDC and the district Fisheries department were given Rs 2.80 crore under the SETU yojana. Similarly, Rs 58 lakh was spent to buy 100 fishing boats, nets and life jackets, Rs 2.40 lakh spent to give training to 25 societies of fishermen, Rs 10,000 to each society. Another Rs 48 lakh has been sanctioned to construct a house at Chitrakonda. The work on the house has not been started as yet since the process of tender is yet to be started. Thus, out of the sanctioned Rs 100 crore, only Rs 17.48 crore has been spent,” informed Patra.
The OPDC has received money to provide boats and nets. The contractor who has been awarded the tender to provide boats has not supplied even a single boat so far. The district Fisheries department has also failed in supplying life jackets.
“The failure of OPDC and district Fisheries department has resulted in chemically-laced Andhra Pradesh fish kept in ice being sold everywhere in the district. People are falling ill after consuming these fish,” some residents alleged.
They have urged the government to intervene and initiate steps so that the fingerlings and fish production increases and resultantly the people will no longer suffer from any disease.
PNN