• Sujal Pradhan, NET Correspondent, Sikkim 

The first meeting to form the District Level Committee under the supervision of Directorate of Fisheries and discussing the proposed ‘District Annual Action Plan’ to be initiated by the department in co-ordination with the Committee members under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) was held today at the Office of the District Collector.

This meeting was chaired by DC (Soreng) cum Chairperson for the committee, Bhim Thatal who was accompanied by Lopsang Tamang, Deputy Director (Fisheries/West), Pranaya Gurung, Joint Director (Agriculture/Soreng), Dilip Sharma, DPO (Zilla/Soreng), Dr. Lhaki Doma Bhutia, SMS (Animal Sciences/West), Shri Gopal Lama, Chief Manager (Lead Bank/SBI), officials from line department and a member representative/ farmer Sandup Bhutia from Sribadam Rainbow Trout Rearing Cooperative Society was amongst the attendees.

While discussing the scheme, Thatal enquired about the factors that can be favourable and helpful for the beneficiaries. He also highlighted some issues that may cause hindrance for the beneficiaries and suggested them to add some possible relaxations on few of the components of the scheme. Adding to this, he advised few steps that the department can take for better outreach and awareness amongst the people with regard to the scheme such as orientation training on latest technologies for interested and existing fish farmers, statistical approach on marketing their fishes and so forth.

Further, Thatal, also expressed his ideas on the concept of progressive farmers and the ways they can avoid business saturation. He suggested the fishers to create a website for advertisement and marketing purposes. He also urged them to communicate the positive and advantageous aspect of being self reliant through entrepreneurship. Further he applauded the farmers’ hard work and dedication towards a successful business of fish farming in the State.

Duchen Lepcha, AD (Fisheries/West) gave an in-depth presentation on the PMMSY scheme, giving in detail the roles and responsibilities of each committee member. He informed that the PMMS Yojana is an initiative launched by the Government of India to establish a comprehensive framework and reduce infrastructural gaps in the fisheries sector. He explained all the advantageous factors that the beneficiaries can avail under the scheme. He also enumerated the beneficiary oriented schemes that have been framed especially for the North Eastern and Himalayan states like Sikkim. He added that the scheme is a step towards developing a suitable fish farming environment in the aforesaid regions. Shri Lepcha also highlighted that the State has a high growth rate in the production of Trout fishes when compared to other States. Lastly, he informed about the eligible beneficiaries such as individual or group farmers, SGHs, fishers, fish workers, fish vendors and so on.

At the end, the meeting had an open house discussion on some issues and queries put forth by the members to the department. Shri Gopal Lama enlightened about the provisions of the bank to avail financial assistance by the beneficiaries.