Telangana Animal Husbandry Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav today announced that the enrolment of new members into the state's fishermen cooperative societies would begin on January 26.
Speaking at review meeting held to oversee the implementation of the government schemes that were introduced for the welfare of the farmers, the minister instructed the concerned fisheries department officials to ensure that all the eligible beneficiaries of the pisciculture-related welfare schemes in the state received the benefits of the schemes.
He also asked the officials to release the guidelines for enrolment of new members, and urged the youth from the major fishing communities of the state to participate in the enrolment drive and to stand for the cooperative's elections, which will reportedly be held soon after the completion of the upcoming enrolment process.
"I urge all youngsters from the Mudiraj, Gangaputra, Tenugu, Gundlabestha, Bestha and Mutharasi communities who are 18 or above to enrol their names for the membership. This will allow them to contest in the elections for various posts in the cooperative," Yadav said.
Talking about the welfare schemes that had been introduced to support the growth of the fisheries sector in the state, he said that the TRS government had taken several steps to provide subsidised vans, nets and other material to the fishermen in order to increase the profitability of their livelihood.
"The TRS government has taken various significant measures to support the fishing community in the state. We have released thousands fishlings and shrimps across many water bodies free of cost, and have also provided mobile fish outlets and other necessary input material to the fishermen at subsidised prices. We assure the community that we will continue to stand by them," the minister said.
He also announced that the fisheries department would commence the operation of 150 mobile fish outlets in the Greater Hyderabad area by the first week of February.
"The mobile fishing units will be provided at a cost of Rs 10 lakh each, and will operate in the GHMC area. Besides these, three mobile outlets will be launched in every district of the state. The government will provide a subsidy of Rs 6 lakh of the total Rs 10 lakh for the procurement, and the beneficiaries will need to pay the remaining Rs 4 lakh. Each unit will be issued to a group comprising three to five women. This is being done to enable them to sell raw fish as well as cooked fish products easily," Yadav added.
The Telangana government has been heavily invested in bolstering the state's fisheries sector. It recently announced that it would also begin to work towards
exporting the state's pisciculture products, soon.