Introduction of Mobile Advisory Services has emerged as a life-saving tool for marine fishermen during natural calamities and, hence, has been accepted widely by them, claimed many fishermen.
A whopping 1,41,873 members of the fishing community have been distributed Green SIM cards in one year since it was implemented under an MoU signed by the Fisheries and Animal Resources Development (FARD) Department and the IFFCO Kissan Sanchar limited (IKSl) on January 21, 2014.
It was revealed at a review meeting held under chairmanship of FARD Secretary Bishnupada Sethy here on Saturday. It was also revealed that beneficiaries have already started getting advisory services and availing the facilities of the scheme (4 Voice+1 Emergency, if any).
The fishermen who received Green SIM cards include 83,751numbers inland community, 47,024 marine community and 11,098 Chilika community. All these communities include Telugu speaking fishermen, whose total number is 6183, who receives Telugu messages. Information on potential fish zone, weather alerts, fish market price, fish conservation, fish feed, kisan credit card and a lot others are messaged Monday through Friday (9.30 am to 6 pm) with a short code number 534351.
The alert messages sent before the Cyclone Hudhud and other calamities saved many lives as fishermen could return to the shore beforehand. They were too educated with health tips and given awareness of using drinking water, first-aid and sanitation after during subsequent flood.
Fisheries Director P Krishna Mohan said, “Empowering fishermen through the Mobile Advisory Services and Establishment of Toll Free Call Centre for Fisheries Extension Service has yielded positive results during first year of its operation.”
The IKSl has attended 8,491 calls and answered 4,566 queries till now. Similarly, subject experts have answered 3,925 queries of fishermen. Similarly, a total of 4, 285 voice messages have been sent during the year.
A Kisan Call Centre for agriculture farmers with toll-free number 18001801551 is also available, revealed officials.Official sources said, 24 quiz programmes have been organized to sharpen the knowledge of users. The winners are getting 100 rupees top-up facility each. Till date 48 users have been benefited.