Imphal, May 19 2009: State Fishery Minister, Md Allaudin visiting the state fishery farm at Takmu located at the southern side of the Loktak Lake as a part of inspection to the cleaning work of the biomass (phumdis) today said that all the encroachers within the 500 hectare area of the farm will be evicted within 15 days in order to demarcate the area of the state fishery farm.

He also said that the government will ban private fishing in the farm for a year at least.

The fishery minister said that out of the total area of 500 hectare of the farm, 100 hectare will be kept reserved for construction of a sports complex but the fishery department will be the caretaker of the land.

Around 7 or 8 hectare of the land will be converted into Takmu ecological park.The government is planning to complete the cleaning work of biomass within a timeline of two or three months from today.

Around 40-50 percent of the work has been able to be completed.

The main objective of the constructive work taken up by the SPF government under the leadership of Chief Minister Okram Ibobi at Takmu Fishery Farm is to publicize the farm by evicting all encroachers from the area of the farm, enhance the fishery product in the state by cultivating more fishes in the farm and the state government has deposited all the funds required for it to the Loktak Development Authority (LDA).

Director of State Fishery Department, Karam Sarat Kumar who accompanied the minister during the visit at Takmu said that the people around the Loktak lake who are into trade of fish by fishing from the lake inside the area of Takmu Fishery Farm has not been paying their taxes for the last three years.

In the past when people used to pay their taxes regularly, the state was able to collect a sum of Rs 2 lakh from the tax at least.

If the fish farms around the lake are able to function properly, the farms could benefit the state government a sum of Rs 10 to 20 lakh annually.

The amount of fish required in the state in a year is around 27 metric tons while the amount of fish produced in the state is only around 18 metric tons.

He further said that the state would be able to produce around 25 thousand to 30 thousand metric tons of fish annually if all the state fish farms especially the Pengba Fish Farm which is also known as Haotak Fish Farm, Khullakpat Fishery and Ungamlen Fishery and all the private fish farms are able to function properly.

Director of LDA, Ch Gojendra along with other staffs were also present at the site during the visit of the minister.

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