Three held with 20 maunds of �jatka� in Barisal
Staff Reporter, Barisal
A team of the Fisheries Department in a drive seized 20 maunds of jatka (hilsa fry less than 10 inches in length) from different areas of the district yesterday and the day before. Bimal Chandra Das, fishery officer (hilsa), said three fish traders were arrested along with the jatka in Taltali and Beltala areas on the outskirt of the city on Saturday and Sunday morning. The undersize hilsa fish were being carried on five boats from different areas for selling and marketing in the city, the fishery official added.
The arrested was identified as Rezaul Karim, 44, Rafiqul Islam,38, and Jasimuddin, 26. Later a mobile court led by executive magistrate Abdur Rouf Mia, also Sadar upazila nirbahi officer, sentenced two of the arrestees to one years imprisonment and fined another Tk2,000.
The court also ordered to distribute the seized jatka to different orphanages, madrasas, slums of the city, court sources informed. The action was taken for violating eight-month country-wide ban enforced from November 1 to June 30 against netting, transportation and marketing, Bazlur Rahman, deputy director and divisional fishery officer said.
The fishery officials said the restriction was imposed under East Bengal Protection and Conservation of Fish Act passed in 1950 and revised as Fish Protection and Conservation Act (amended) in 1985. This act was revised on September 14 , 1985 and again on April 13 , 2013 extending the restriction period from November 1 to June 30 and revising the size of jatka as 10-inch (26 centimetres), he added.
