Fisheries and Livestock Minister SM Rezaul Karim said the government has declared the Halda River, the only natural fisheries breeding centre of the country, as "Bangabandhu Matshya Heritage" with an effort to protect the sweet water fisheries.
The minister said this while responding to a query made by treasury bench lawmaker Nurunnabi Chowdhury of Bhola-3 at the question-answer session held at the parliament on Monday.
Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury chaired the session.
To protect the indigenous and sweet water fisheries species, he said the government has taken massive programmes through reformation, excavation and re-excavation of the water bodies across the country as the fisheries habitat could be restored, reports BSS.
He said under the programme, the department of fisheries (DoF) has developed over 5,500 hectares of degenerated water bodies under different development projects in the last 14 years since 2008-09 fiscal years.
The minister also said in the last 14 years, the government is implementing the programme of fries released in open water bodies to raise production. A total of 4,058 tonnes and 4,052 tonnes of fish-fries have been released in the open waters under different development projects.
Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul
