The city is going to face acute shortage in supply of fish a daily staple for millions with liquidity crunch reaching its zenith. If the average Kolkatan is elated by the dip in fish price on Monday, it is short-lived. The supply system receives a body blow with currency flow drying up completely. At Digha, Kakdwip and Diamond Harnbour, trawlers are stranded with tonnes of fish rotting in them. A few thousand trucks carrying fish are stranded in different parts of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha for not being able to pay mechanical tax in small denomination notes. More than 1,200 trawlers laden with fish are stranded at different parts in Diamond Harbour, Kakdwip, Frazergunj as ‘aratdars’ (fish-wholesalers) of Nagendra Bazar, the biggest wholesale fish market in South 24-Parganas, have stopped buying fish from anglers because of liquidity crunch. Nagendra Arat Merchant’s association general secretary Jagannath Sarkar said: “We don’t have enough currency notes of lower denominations to buy the huge quantity of fish. Fishermen have stopped accepting other notes.” “If off-taking does not happen fast, they will rot in the trawlers. Each trawler has at least fish worth Rs 2.5 lakh. Not only will there will be a huge loss, there will be serious shortage of supply of fish in city markets, particularly those in Kolkata,” said Satinath Patra, general secretary of Fish Trawlers’ Owners Welfare Association. Patra anticipated a loss of livelihood and imminent crisis in the fish economics of the state, if there is no steady supply of new currency notes. As wholesalers cannot off-take fish with the banned currency notes, ‘aratdars’ themselves are not accepting these currency notes from the retailers. “There is fear psychosis that has ruined the atmosphere of trust and sanity. Even a day ago, people were trading on credit. Now, going gets tougher,” said Bijon Maity, secretary of Kakdip Fishermen’s association. The crisis has started hitting parts of the city from Monday itself. “We cannot buy fish from ‘aratdar’ as wholesalers are not accepting banned notes today. Till yesterday, they accepted notes. If aratdars don’t accept notes, we cannot accept these notes. So, there was hardly any fish here. There will be serious crisis from Tuesday onwards,” Lake Market fish retailer Amar Das said on Monday. To clear the stock lying with retailers, the price of fish has fallen drastically in the local fish markets. Fish-sellers rued there has been more than 70% slash in the number of customers they have been getting ever since Rs 500/Rs 1000 were withdrawn from the market. The Janbazar fish market looked almost deserted in the evening with fishmongers saying they are not beengetting customers despite the drastic fall in fish price. Katla sold at Rs 250 though it had touched Rs 400 before demonetisation. The Janbazar market is popular for different varieties of prawns which sold at least Rs 100-Rs 150 cheaper than what it was earlier, said fish-seller Hira Shaw. Tangra, Bhetki and Aar sold between Rs 280 and Rs 300, at least Rs 80-100 cheaper than their normal price. “The supply has dried up at the Howrah Fish wholesale market because Rs 500/Rs 1000 notes are not being accepted at all since the weekend. Naturally, we are not being able to pick up our usual supply,” said Hira Shaw, a fish-seller whose grandfather had started the business 50 years ago.
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