HYDERABAD, July 20: The Chairman of Sindh Taraqi Passand Mallah Tanzeem, Mohammad Arib Mallah, has urged the Sindh chief minister to convene a meeting of the representatives of fishermen and officials of the fisheries department to expedite implementation of his programme for the welfare and prosperity of the fishermen.

In a statement issued here on Friday, he said that the Sindh chief minister on April 21, had abolished contract system for catching fish in the sweet waters of the province and announced licence system.

He said the Chief Minister had further advised fishermen not to pay “bhatta” to any one.

Mr Mallah said that the fishermen had hailed the announcement but expressed fears that some officials of the fisheries department will sabotage the decision of the chief minister.

He recalled that the Sindh Assembly had adopted a bill in 1976, that licence system should be introduced for catching fish in the five main sweet water lakes of the province.

He, however, said that later under a conspiracy, licence system was replaced with mole system and within six months, the government had suffered a loss of Rs35 million and the mole system was abolished. Nevertheless, he said, due to the mole system, waderas had occupied many lakes.

He said that despite ban on the use of some equipment, it was being freely used, extortionism was rampant and the fish species was fast disappearing.

He said that 350,000 fishermen of downstream Kotri were living in abject poverty and the famous “palla” fish of Sindh could not travel upto Kotri.He said, last year, Sindh chief secretary had met with the representatives of fishermen and asked them to submit a charter of demand.

He said, charter of demands was handed over to the secretary fisheries department in January this year, in which it was recommended that a fisheries board which should include the representatives of fishermen should be constituted, a law should be legislated on fisheries, licence system should be introduced for catching fish in the main five water lakes, comprehensive lists of the fishermen should be prepared and strict action should be taken against those who were using banned nets.