Catching of mother-hilsha is going on unabated in the river Padma at Paksey under Ishwardi upazila of Pabna district defying ban.
Some dishonest fishermen were engaged in catching mother-hilsa at the dead of night and selling those at local hats and markets.
Meanwhile, police arrested 15 fishermen during catching hilsha from the river from October 9 to October 22 and punished them in various terms.
Police also seized some 150,000 metre of current nets from their possession and burnt those.
It is learnt, though the government has imposed a ban on catching of hilsa from the river Padma from October-9 to October 30, some dishonest fishermen were not caring for the ban and were catching Hilsha fish from the river at dead night by managing police.
The sources mentioned, though the government has imposed ban on hilsa catching for 2-days, no grants or financial assistance was sanctioned for the fishermen who used to manage their livelihood by catching fish in the river. As a result, even after learning about the ban, the fishermen were being bound to catch fish from the river for the sake of their subsistence.
Some farmers of Saraghat area informed, at day time fishermen used to wait with their nets and rope at various places beside the river and whenever they get 'green signal' from the person( on duty police), they start fishing the hilsha on boats with their nets.
A farmer informed that from upstream of Hardinge bridge point to Golapnagar through Paltanghat, a huge number of Hilsha fish are caught.
On Saturday last, three fishermen named Solaiman, Tariqul and Rabiul from Paksey bridge area and two others from Ambaria area were arrested by police for illegally catching fish from the river. They informed, they used to catch fish at night and sold those secretly to the fish traders at night. Some of them were also learnt to preserve those catch with ice or in the refrigerator.
Fisheries department sources in Ishwardi informed, so far 15 fishermen were arrested and punished, 150,000 metre current net siezed and 25 kiligrammes of hilsa fish were recovered and donated those to local orphanage.
Shakila Jahan, Upazila Senior Fisheries Officer of Ishwardi informed, it was not possible to keep vigilance to the vast areas of the river Padma at Paksey. Still with the help of police, the drive against the illegal Hilsha catchers is continuing.
Officer-in-Charge of Ishwardi Police station Bahauddin Faruqui, informed that the drive against the illegal hilsha catcher is continuing and would continue till the last date of the ban.
