Due to lack of staff and required equipment, fisheries department of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) is facing severe problems to effectively control illegal fishing at the Rawal Lake.
Talking to APP, Fisheries Deputy Director Ishtiaq Ahmed said that despite lack of staff, his department has been doing its best to control illegal hunting of fish.
The department is regularly conducting raids to check the illegal activity and during past one month about two hundred nets were confiscated.
He said that out of two boats available for patrolling staff, one had gone out of order and only one boat is not sufficient to cover the entire Lake. Moreover he said that there is no police check post near the Lake and whenever some illegal hunters are caught, they escape from the scene before police arrival.
Furthermore, he informed that if someone is caught from the Lake, secretariat police has to be approached while if some one is caught from outside the Lake around Bani Gala side, they have to approach BaniGala police.
The deputy director also said that due to lack of staff, patrolling is being done in only two shifts rather than three shifts.
He further said as per fisheries ordinance the staff was authorised to have weapons for their protection but due to lack of sufficient funds they were not provided the weapons.
Similarly in the past, patrolling staff was provided uniforms, but financial constraints has forced the management to make do without uniforms.
About future plans he said that his department plans to rehabilitate the fish hatchery and build another hatchery on the upper side of the Lake.
He said that his department would seek necessary funds to overcome staff and equipment shortage in the next fiscal year.
He clarified that fish from Rawal Lake is not being sold in the market as the commodity being sold at stalls near adjoining roads was brought from local fish markets.
On the contrary, anglers opine that illegal fish hunt at Rawal Lake through nets at the cost of hunters for fun and recreation was still going on.
Several visitors at the Rawal Lake told that visitors who come for fun and recreation have to pay a hefty amount of Rs 200 for one-day license fee say they hardly can catch any fish as they are caught in the nets of illegal fishers.
Afaq Hussain,a frequent visitor to the Lake told that the fishermen’s equipments are confiscated only when some complaints are lodged but later returned to grab money. He said that a number of fish stall owners at adjoining roads of the Lake claim to sell their fish hunted from the Rawal Lake which clearly indicates that the activity was being carried out.
Another visitor Adil Malik criticised the Fisheries Department for what he called unjustified raise in fish hunt permits which a common man hardly affords.