Fishermen to get ID cards
Dhaka: A total of 20 lakh fishermen of the country will be provided with identity cards by this year, an initiative aimed at enlisting the great number of people involved in this profession.
Fisheries and Livestock Minister Muhammed Sayedul Hoque said about his government plan on Tuesday.
“The present government is implementing a development project with a view to ensuring registration and providing ID cards at the personal initiative of the Prime Minister. We do hope it’ll be possible to give ID cards to 20 lakh fishermen by 2015,” he said.
The minister said this while addressing a press conference arranged at Matsya Bhaban in the city on the occasion of National Fisheries Week-2015.
He said the government has taken extensive programmes to reclaim the abodes of indigenous spices of fish through excavation and re-excavation of river and canals across the country.
Mentioning that Bangladesh got its right to collect marine resources over 1,18,813 nautical sqkm following the settlement of disputes with India and Myanmar through International Court under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s leadership, the minister said, “ Now it’s all our duty to consolidate the achievement.”
About formalin use in fish, he said the government is very serious to check this bad practice. “It’s the government’s duty to stop it and mobile courts are being operated every week to this end.”
Fisheries and Livestock secretary Dr Selina Afroz and DG of Fisheries Department Arif Azad were, among others, present at the press conference.