Non-utilisation of allocated funds worries fisheries dept

Non-utilisation of allocated funds worries fisheries dept
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 22
Lack of interest among farmers of Bathinda to adopt fish farming has become a cause of worry for officials of the fisheries department as they are finding it difficult to spend the allocated funds, besides disbursing the earmarked amount of subsidy and meeting the target of loan assistance. The authorities would have to return funds worth lakhs to the state exchequer at the end of the current financial year.
Sources in the fisheries department disclosed that the district was allocated a sum of Rs 7.82 lakh for the expansion of a government hatchery at Rai Ke Kalan village during 2009-10. However, the department could not even find the official agency to get the work executed.
Further, a sum of Rs 1.97 lakh was allocated to the district for disbursing subsidies for excavation of fish ponds during the current financial year, but the department could not disburse even a single penny till January 31, 2010.
Fearing that the amount will lapse after March 31, the department has now found five farmers for issuing grant of Rs 91,420 as subsidy for excavation, input material and feed.
The Bathinda office of the department was asked to meet the loan assistance target of Rs 15 lakh during this year but till January end, only four cases were assisted with Rs 10.44 lakh. However, the officials are now assisting a farmer with a loan of Rs 2.30 lakh but it is under process.
Meanwhile, if one goes by the statistical details of the fish seed production in this district, it is negligible. The state authorities had fixed this year’s target of fish seed production for Rai Ke Kalan hatchery at 18 lakh but till last month, the authorities could get only 85,000 fish seeds from the hatchery.
However, an official of the department said the plant had produced about 5 lakh fish seeds during the year but more than 4 lakh were transferred to the account of last year to make up for the deficiency.
Replying to a query related to the dismal performance, deputy director of department of fisheries, Bathinda, Sukhdev Singh said, “There is no hurdle from our side. It is just a lack of interest among the farmers to avail of the benefits of government schemes.”
“Though fish farming is a beneficial trade, the high value of land has emerged as the major reason behind farmers shying away from adoptin it as a subsidiary occupation,” he added.