Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday said that the State must become self reliant in fish production.
“Fishery sector has immense potential and we must vigorously engage in it for deriving maximum benefits. Assam is blessed with abundant water resources and we have the capacity to become biggest producer and exporter of fish in the country. But for that, we must adopt latest scientific technologies for augmenting our production,” Chief Minister Sonowal said while taking part in the programme to distribute appointment letters to 35 fishery development officers under Fisheries Department at the conference hall of chief minister’s Secretariat of Janata Bhawan.
Calling on the new appointees to strive hard to enable the fishermen and fish producers of the State a life of dignity, Sonowal directed the Fisheries Department to prepare a roadmap for the development of fishery sector to fulfil the fish requirement of the State without resorting to imports.
Hoping that the newly appointed officers would be able to make positive change in the department by infusing fresh thoughts and knowledge, the chief minister urged them to dedicate themselves to the cause of making the State a top fish exporter in near future.
Urging the fish producers of the State to go for value addition of the fish produced in the State to cater to the international markets, the chief minister appreciated the Fisheries Department for increasing the fish production to the tune of 20000 metric tonne in 2017-18 and he directed the department to work for increasing production even further so that fish import can be stopped.