Over 131 lakh fishermen covered under Centre’s insurance scheme: Minister

New Delhi, Aug 7 (IANS) Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying Rajiv Ranjan Singh on Wednesday informed the Rajya Sabha that as many as 131.3 lakh fishermen have been covered under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) of the Centre’s Department of Fisheries.

It provides the Group Accidental Insurance scheme wherein the entire insurance premium amount is borne by the Central and state governments, with no contribution from the beneficiary.

Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh, commonly known as Lalan Singh, said in a written reply that the insurance coverage provided under the Group Accidental Insurance Scheme (GAIS) includes Rs 5,00,000 against death or permanent total disability and Rs 2,50,000 for permanent partial disability, adding that the scheme also covers hospitalisation expenses in the event of an accident for a sum of Rs 25,000.

He also stated that the government in the year 2018-19, extended the Kisan Credit Card (KCC) facility to fishers and fish farmers to meet their working capital requirements.

“As of date, 4,26,666 KCCs have been sanctioned to fishers and fish farmers in all states and UTs,” the Union Minister said.

He said that the Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, with effect from the financial year 2018-19 is also implementing a scheme namely ‘Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF)’, which provides concessional finance for the development of various fisheries infrastructure facilities with an interest subvention up to 3 per cent per annum with the repayment period of 12 years inclusive of moratorium of 2 years for repayment of the principal amount.

In a written reply to another question, the Union Minister said that under the PMMSY scheme, during the last four financial years (FY 2020-21 to 2023-24) and current financial year (2024-25) approvals have been given to proposals for fisheries development projects various state governments, union territories and other implementing agencies amounting to Rs 19,670.56 crore with a Central government share of Rs 8,666.28 crore.

The broad activities approved for expansion of the fisheries and aquaculture sector during the above-said period include 29,964 hectares of pond area for inland aquaculture, 4013 Biofloc units, 11995 Nos of Re-circulatory Aquaculture Systems (RAS), 50,710 reservoir cages and 543.7 hectares pens in reservoirs, 1,11,110 units of seaweed rafts and monoline units, 1489 bivalve cultivation units, 720 artificial reef units, 6 Integrated Aquaparks including a Seaweed park, 1040 Feed mill units, 54 fishing harbours and fish landing centres, 586 cold storages, 18 wholesale fish markets, 193 fish retail markets, 6581 fish kiosks, 108 value added enterprise units and 26,188 post-harvest transportation units, the minister added.