Fishing ban: Govt to provide 40 kg rice monthly to 0.4m families

The government will provide 40 kilograms of rice monthly to each of 4,14,784 fishermen's families in 42 upazilas of 12 coastal districts during a 65-day ban on fishing in the Bay of Bengal, reports UNB.
The government imposed a 65-day ban from May 20 to July 23 on fishing in the Bay of Bengal, aiming to boost commercial fishing in the country.
State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock MdAshraf Ali Khan Khasru announced this at a press conference at the secretariat on Wednesday.
The rice will be provided to the fishermen before the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr under VGF programme as they have no alternative source of income, Khasru said.
"In the fiscal 2017-18, the country became self-reliant in fish production by producing a total of 4.27 million tonnes of fish. Among those, 0.65million tonnes of fish came from sea which is 15.33 per cent of total fish production of the country", he added.
The government since 2015 has imposed a periodic ban on fishing in the seas for creating a safe environment for aquatic or semi-aquatic mammals in Bangladesh's exclusive economic zone in the Bay of Bengal and for ensuring safe and sustainable accumulation of fish reserves.