Manpower crisis hampers Raipur Fish Hatchery to be good revenue earner

RAIPUR, LAXMIPUR, Dec 31: Poor infrastructure and  manpower crisis hamper Raipur Fish Hatchery here to be a good revenue earner.
The hatchery earned Tk 44 lakh from the sale of 719 kg of fry and 16 lakh fingerling in 2010. In 2018, 769 kg of fry and about 23 lakh of fingerling were produced. Then its revenue earning stood at about Tk 49 lakh.
In 2020 its fry production stood at 1,025 kg while fingerling production  over 23 lakh. Its earning stood at Tk 60 lakh.
This year fry and fingerling selling target has been fixed at Tk 45, 80,000. But within six months, from January to June, the earning stood at Tk 45, 87,409.
The hatchery started producing quality fry and sending this to at least 40 districts of the country. The fry production continues to increase but it has been unable to meet the increasing demand because of lack of necessary manpower and infrastructure.
The hatchery of 75 ponds, built at a cost of Tk 4.30 crore,  was inaugurated on September 6 in 1982. But no major development was done since then.
In the hatchery, only 17 positions were filled up against granted 82 posts. Other infrastructure problems included roads, water and electricity services.
According to field sources, about 28,000 ponds and vast marshes have got detached from natural flow of the Meghna and Dakatia rivers in Raipur Upazila of the district.
The river-flow cut has been due to an embankment, raised in Chandpur Irrigation project area in 1960s.  It has affected fish production.  To enhance fish production, a fisheries breeding and training centre was established by the then ministry of fisheries and livestock resources in 1982 on 54 acres of land. It is known as Raipur Fish Hatchery.
According to official sources, the issue of the hatchery was discussed in the parliament in 2018.
Later two officials of the ministry concerned inspected the hatchery on September 24 of the year. They identified 13 problems, and these were sent to the ministry secretary with recommendations. But the recommendations were not implemented in the next three years.
There are seven buildings in the hatchery. Two of these buildings are used as residence of officers while another five for employees. But most of these have turned unliveable.
A recent visit found very negligible condition of infrastructures including dormitories and utility services of water and electricity.
Some regular buyers said, they are not getting fish fry according to their demand.
Hatchery sources said, a proposal of about Tk 37, 91, 16,000 was placed at the ECNEC meeting in 2017 for infrastructure development including ponds and training capacity building. If the proposal is approved, the present revenue will go up two times.   
In-Charge and Senior Scientific Officer of the hatchery Lutfur Rahman said, if the recommendations are implemented, the fry-fingerling production and revenue can be enhanced.  
Local MP (Raipur-2) Advocate Noor Uddin Chowdhury Nayan said, in order to address manpower and infrastructure problems, a project proposal has been sent to Dhaka. It is expected that the crises will be resolved soon, the MP added.