Chandpur Correspondent:

Authorities have handed out fines totalling Tk 9,000 to three vendors and seized 195 kg of hilsa from a market in Chandpur’s Hajiganj Upazila on the first day of the ban on catching and selling the coveted fish.

Executive Magistrate Rifat Jahan conducted a mobile court drive to enforce the ban during a visit to the Hajiganj market in the Balur Math area around 10pm on Sunday.

The government has imposed a 22-day ban on catching, transporting and selling the fish, effective from midnight on Saturday to Nov 3, in a bid to protect juvenile and brood hilsa during its breeding season.

“We fined three traders at the Hajiganj market Tk 3,000 each and confiscated 195 kg of hilsa for defying the prohibition,” said Assistant Commissioner Rifat Jahan.

He added that the confiscated hilsa were later distributed to various orphanages in the Upazila.