Punjab Government has covered nearly 3,000 fish farmers from 14 districts under free insurance scheme for the year 2015. The free insurance scheme is being executed in collaboration with Fishcofed. The State Government and the Union Government have paid the premium and the fish farmers would not be charged a single penny for this insurance,” said the state Animal Husbandry, Fisheries and Dairy Development Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike on Thursday.
The Minister said that during the year 2015, government has covered 2,956 fish farmers or sellers under accidental insurance cover including 374 fish farmers from ludhiana district, 305 from Gurdaspur, 255 from Kapurthala, 203 from Fatehgarh Sahib and 229 from Ferozepur. Similarly, 220 fish farmers have been covered in Patiala district, 573 in Roopnagar, 161 in Amritsar, 140 in Moga, 161 in Hoshiarpur, 100 in Sangrur, 90 in Sri Muktsar Sahib, 75 in Faridkot and 70 in Bathinda district. Ranike said that `2 lakh compensation is provided to the dependents of deceased fish farmers or sellers and in case of permanent handicap, the fish farmer would be compensated with `one lakh.
He said that `10,000 is given for the hospitalization of fish farmer. The premium of this insurance per person per annum is `20.27 and the Punjab Government is contributing 50 per cent of this amount, he said.
Ranike added that the State Government has already announced 50 per cent subsidy for all districts on fish farming. Farmers having one acre land under fish farming would get `60,000 for digging as per the norms of department, `20,000 for feed purposes and `18,000 to purchase aerator for increasing amount of oxygen in water.