Telangana Will Have Fish Processing Units of International Standards, Says Harish Rao

Finance Minister T Harish Rao of Telangana announced that the State government has resolved to construct fish processing units that meet international standards. The units would initially be established on fisheries department property in Sheriguda, near Hyderabad, Khammam, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, and Warangal. The minister stated that the government was contemplating buying fish from fisheries cooperative societies through fishermen federation and marketing them under a new brand of ‘Telangana Fish' during the joining of Chairman of Karimnagar Fisheries Corporation, Poli Laxman Mudiraj and others into TRS party in Huzurabad.

According to the Minister, the State government has already begun mobile fish outlets in order to boost the marketing system. He explained that a cluster would be formed along with two to three mandals, and fish would be caught by sending trucks to 40 to 50 clusters that would be linked to the main processing facility.

While all state governments were abandoning the fishermen community, he added, the Telangana government was very supportive of the community and had implemented a lot of welfare schemes to defend the group's interests. The free fish seed distribution scheme introduced by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has significantly increased the state's fish population. In the fiscal year 2016-17, the state captured 1.97 lakh tonnes of fish. However, in 2020-21, the figure has been raised to 3.49 lakh tonnes.

While 60% of the fish was utilised for local needs, the remaining 40% was exported to other states, including West Bengal (21%), Assam (19%), Tamil Nadu (19%), and Kerala (19%). Despite the Chief Minister's introduction of a variety of welfare schemes aimed at the economic and social development of the fishermen community, the latter was losing money by selling fish to middlemen. As a result, he informed, the government has chosen to purchase seafood from fisheries cooperative societies.