Krishna district bags Best Marine District Award

Vijayawada: Krishna district stood first in fish and prawn production in the state with output of eight lakh tonnes last year, said Krishna district Collector Md Imtiaz on Thursday.

He said Union Minister Giriraj Singh will present the best marine district award to Krishna district in New Delhi on November 21 along with two other districts in the country.

The Collector addressed press conference at the camp office after Krishna district selected as one of the three districts as the best marine districts in the country. He said Nagan district in Assam and Kalahandi district in Odisha are the two other districts selected by the Union government to present the award. Giving details of fish and prawn cultivation in the district, he said the Krishna district has coast of 111 km and fish is being cultivated in 49,000 hectares of fresh water and prawn and salt fish is cultivated in another 19,000 hectares. He said Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is implementing many welfare schemes for the development of fisheries and to promote fish and prawn cultivation.

Imtiaz said that 100 prawn cultivators were given special training by the fisheries department and the trained fishermen again trained other fishermen in the district to boost the aqua cultivation. He said the due to implementation of innovative methods the fish and prawn production increased and Krishna district stood first in the state with output of eight lakh tonnes. He said 9,069 fishermen were given Rs 10,000 each under the Matsyakara Bharosa scheme last financial year. Under the Matsyakara Bharosa scheme, diesel was supplied to the fish farmers to operate 1,860 mechanised boats and motorised boats.

Imtiaz said the state government is rendering financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh to the kin of the fishermen in case of death during the fishing. He said that power subsidy of Rs 185 crore was given to provide power at Rs 1.50 per unit to 46,000 fishermen in the district.

He announced fishing harbour modernisation works started at a cost of Rs 348 crore with the help of State and Central governments.

Joint Collector K Madhavi Latha and Fisheries department joint director Lal Ahmed attended the press conference.