Berhampur, After fishing,dried fish is the other source of income for fishermen families in Ganjam district.Even they earn more from selling dried fish,but the selling responsiblity mostly lies with the fisherwomen and the fishermen mostly confined themselves in fishing.Ganjam has a coastal area of over 60 kms and fishermen community resided in 32 coastal villages.While it is a common scene across Ganjam,that fisherwoman with bucket load moves nook and corners of urban and rural area with dried fish,most of the dried fish sold at a one and half day haat(market)at Humma on the side of NH-16.Over 500 dried fish vendors across the district reaches the haat with their stock by saturday afternoon and the market continue till evening of sunday in each week.Around 40 varieties of dried fish are available in the haat with wholesellers and retailors,comes alive with large number consumers and traders.Sources said the rush at the market often causes traffic jams on the highway as there is no parking space.Despite a large gathering,the haat saans basic facilities like drinking water,toilet or restroom,what has posed serious problems for the buyers aas well sellers.The buyers spends a little time,but the sellers has a hardtime and they stay at the place for more than 40 hours.In the absence of rest room,they spend the night under open sky with makeshift huts or polythene sheets.To solve the problems,in 2018,former Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone for construction of a hygienic market complex with required infrastructure at the place.The project, undertaken at a cost of Rs 5 crore,has already been completed,but not handed over to the local administration yet.The irony is that,the administration earns around 50 lakhs every year towards revenue from the haat,as the haat doing a business of similar amount per week.Despite the haat exist on the NH,it failed to draw the attention of administration and elected representatives.Apart from inadequate infrastructure,traders at the market are also facing the brunt of rise in the price of salt.The traders said now the cost of salt,the main ingredient of the dried fish,doubled,what lessened our incomce said S.Niladree,a wholeseller.Around 8-10 kg salt is required to process a quintal of dried fish. Besides salt, turmeric is used to process dried fish which is left to dry under the sun for days.Mangaraj Panda,a social worker of the area said,few fishermen groups have started making dried fish without salt but its demand is less,as it is mostly used for manufacturing poultry feed.However,the local BDO,Achyutananda jani said,soon the buildings will accomodate the haat,which will solve all the problems.
