By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR:Odisha Deep Sea Fisheries Mission’ will enrich the rural economy of the state through Blue-Economy and create new livelihood opportunities for thousands of fishing families in the coming days. Today’s initiative will improve the fortunes of fishing brothers and sisters and this new system will directly benefit the fishing cooperative societies of our state, said Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan while joining the Honorable Vice President of India, C.P. Radhakrishnan, at a special program in this regard in Bhubaneswar today.
The ‘Letter of Authority’ (LOA) for sustainable use of fish resources from the deep sea and the national launch of the ‘Odisha Deep Sea Fisheries Mission’ were held on Thursday. Praising the visionary leadership of Shri Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister said that since 2014, there has been a significant improvement in the fisheries sector and its international marketing system in the country. Despite the global situation and many challenges, India has increased its fish exports by more than Rs. 11,000 crore in just one year, achieving a growth of 21%. This is playing a major role in strengthening the country’s economy and taking forward the vision of ‘Developed India’.
Highlighting the potential of Odisha and its comparative picture with neighboring Andhra Pradesh, the Union Minister said that despite the fact that Odisha has almost half the coastline (575 km) and the same area of river-canal reservoirs as Andhra Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh produces about 45 lakh metric tons as against Odisha’s 12 lakh metric tons of fish production. This gap creates as much challenge as it does opportunity for us. Therefore, we have to give more importance to the cooperative sector, improve rural roads and infrastructure and adopt special measures for fish production units. The double engine government of the Centre and the state is fully committed to the welfare of about 1 crore families of the state and to give a new shape to the fisheries sector.
This historic national initiative to issue deep sea fishing licenses to Indian flagged vessels will modernize and empower the fishermen. For the convenience of fishermen and ship owners, the Union Government has upgraded the ‘ReALCraft’ digital platform, through which now they can get LOA completely online without any unnecessary paperwork and at a low fee. Shri Pradhan said that this is a great example of the Prime Minister’s “Digital India” and “Ease of Doing Business”. The Union Minister called upon all the fishermen brothers and sisters of Odisha to be committed to taking the state’s fisheries industry forward and expressed his gratitude to the Honorable Vice President for his valuable guidance.
The event was attended by the Honorable Governor of Odisha Dr. Haribabu Kambhampati, Chief Minister Shri Mohan Charan Majhi, Union Minister of Panchayati Raj, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Shri Rajiv Ranjan Singh, Union Minister of State Prof. S.P. Singh Baghel and Odisha Minister of Fisheries and Livestock Development Shri Gokulanand Mallick.
