Fisheries Department, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) has stocked around 400,000 fishes in Rawal Dam to provide sufficient amount of protein to the residents of the federal capital.
Speaking at a ceremony here on the other day at Rawal Dam, Deputy Commissioner, Islamabad Irfan Nawaz Memon said fish stocking was done two to three times a year as per the demand of the city, but this time approximately 0.4 million fishes were released in the Dam.
He informed that ICT administration had already banned fishing and boating in Rawal Dam by imposing Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), adding that at least 11 motor boats were seized during a recent crackdown, whereas fishing rods, nets and other materials used in fishing was also confiscated from the adjoining localities to the Dam, a major reservoir supplying water to Rawalpindi.
The DC urged the masses to cooperate with the civil administration to control illegal fishing and avoid boating in the water reservoir of Islamabad.
Deputy Director Fisheries Islamabad Hamid Khan said the department was established with a mandate to develop and conserve fish culture activities in Islamabad Capital Territory. He said that a plan was underway to train the staff of local fish farms to promote fish culture in the private sector.
Similarly, he said the department was offering multiple services to the masses including angling, motivation of the farmers for fish farming, provision of technical guidance to the fish farmers, besides fish seeds to private fish farmers.
Deputy Director Fisheries Rawalpindi Division Shafiq Ahmed said that in stocking fishes best kind were being raised from major carps, common carps and Chinese carps. Healthy fishes were selected before stocking into Dam for good production of meat and protein, he added.
