A national level workshop for welfare of fishing community was held at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad recently in which NGO RUPA president Biranchi Narayan Mohapatra and treasurer Bishnu Prasad Mishra participated from the State. The main motto of the workshop was development of the fishing communities by disseminating information on Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ). Notably, INCOIS is the only organisation in the country which provides information through mobile (SMS) to the fishers on various matters.
Mahapatra apprised Director, INCOIS Dr SSC Shenoi about the emerging problems of the fishing communities in Odisha and requested INCOIS to give an opportunity to RUPA to educate the fishermen in the State through PFZ Network. Dr Shenoi appreciated the efforts of RUPA and agreed to take up collaborative projects on the subject. INCOIS under the Ministry of Ocean Science Technology has developed a scientific network in the country for alert on tsunami and earth quake as well as other natural calamities.
Mahapatra and Mishra discussed with Dr Shenoi on the emerging problems of the user communities of Odisha, basically the backward fishermen. Dr Shenoi assured to the representatives of RUPA to solve the problems on priority basis. Among others who attended as guests include Deputy Director General, Indian Agriculture Research Center Dr B Minakumari, Cost Guard Security Head Quarter DIG Captain AA Hebar and Gujarat Martian Board Chief SC Mathur.