Union Budget’19 announces ‘Matsya Sampada Yojana’

Finance Minister, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman, announced measures to promote aquaculture in India through appropriate policy, marketing and infrastructure support. The current government’s maiden budget’19 intends to bring the fishermen community under the realm of all farmer welfare programmes and social security schemes, with expanded coverage for accident insurance. Committed to realizing its dream of a ‘Blue Revolution’, the government has launched a separate department for the integrated development of fisheries. A special fund has also been created to build up infrastructure related to the fishing industry. The ‘Matsya Sampada Yojana’, too, has been envisaged to develop the required infrastructure to boost the sector.