Andhra government has approved a law under which all fresh and brackish water aquaculture ponds in the district should be registered with the Coastal Aquaculture Authority (CAA) before December 31. Ponds measuring less than two hectares have to be registered with the CAA’s district committee and more than two hectares, with the State committee.
Kakinada district collector Gopalakrishna Dwivedi said that out of 2,571 farmers doing brackish water aquaculture, 1,856 applied for registration and all, except two, which were pending with the CAA State committee, were given licences. The Fisheries Department was asked to find out whether the aquaculture ponds were polluting the nearby agricultural fields and drinking water tanks, with the help of Agriculture and Rural Water Supply Departments and A.P Pollution Control Board.
The step was taken to answer the question of increasing pollution. Dwivedi said farmers could not export their produce without getting themselves registered with the CAA and the Fisheries Department needed to spread awareness about the same. He added that a special drive should be launched to ensure that cent per cent registrations were done by this month-end as stipulated by the CAA.
