Assistance to Scheduled Castes for Fisheries: Fish Seed Stocking (Gujarat)

What is the Fish Seed Stocking assistance scheme in Gujarat?

Assistance to Scheduled Castes for Fisheries: Fish Seed Stocking is a Scheduled Caste sub-plan component run by the Commissioner of Fisheries under Gujarat's Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department. The scheme pays for the fish seed. The fingerlings and fry released into a reservoir, village tank or other inland water body, and for moving that seed from the hatchery to the water.

According to the myScheme record maintained for the Gujarat Fisheries Commissionerate, the assistance is 100 percent of the cost of fish seed and 100 percent of the transportation cost. That full-cost design is deliberate. Seed is the single largest cash outlay at the start of an inland fisheries cycle, and it comes months before any income from harvest, which is exactly the point at which small Scheduled Caste fishers in Gujarat drop out of the activity or borrow informally.

Two objectives sit behind the scheme. The first is production: Gujarat has a large stock of irrigation reservoirs, percolation tanks and village ponds whose fisheries potential is unused unless somebody stocks them. The second is employment for Scheduled Caste households already working in inland fisheries, either on their own, through a registered fishermen's co-operative society, or through a self-help group.

Key features

• State-funded component of the Scheduled Caste sub-plan, not a centrally sponsored scheme.
• Assistance covers seed cost and seed transport in full, rather than a percentage share.
• Delivered through the i-Khedut portal, the same portal Gujarat uses for agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry and fisheries schemes.
• A minimum reclamation period of one year applies to the stocked water body.

Who is eligible for Fish Seed Stocking assistance?

You can apply if:

• You belong to a Scheduled Caste listed for Gujarat and hold a valid caste certificate issued by the competent revenue authority.
• You are 18 years of age or older on the date of application.
• You are engaged in inland fisheries in Gujarat; as an individual fisher, as a member of a fishermen's co-operative society, or through a self-help group.
• You hold a bank account in your own name for the direct transfer.
• You can show a right to use the water body being stocked, through a reservoir lease, a village tank allotment or a society record.

You cannot apply if:

• You are not from a Scheduled Caste. The budget line is drawn from the Scheduled Caste sub-plan, so general-category and Scheduled Tribe applicants are not eligible under this particular component and must use the general inland fisheries schemes or the tribal sub-plan components instead.
• You are under 18.
• You have no bank account in your own name. A joint account held mainly by a relative, or an account in a spouse's name, is a standing cause of rejection.
• You cannot demonstrate any inland fisheries activity. The scheme is for working fishers and fish farmers, not for general investment.
• You apply after the i-Khedut window has closed for the year.

Marine fishing is outside the scope of this particular component. Gujarat runs separate marine schemes — kerosene assistance, diesel VAT relief, fishermen accident assistance and group accident insurance, through the same Fisheries Commissionerate, listed on fisheries.gujarat.gov.in.

What documents are required?

Keep the name spelling identical across the caste certificate, the identity proof and the bank passbook. A mismatch between these three is the most avoidable reason applications stall at the district fisheries office.

How to apply for Fish Seed Stocking assistance online

1. Open the i-Khedut portal at ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in and choose the schemes section.
2. Select the fisheries department from the list of schemes, then find Fish Seed Stocking among the Scheduled Caste components. If it is not listed, the application window for the year is closed.
3. Choose register as a new applicant if you have not used i-Khedut before, and enter your district, taluka and village.
4. Fill the application form with your personal details, caste certificate number, bank account details and the details of the water body you intend to stock, its name, location and approximate area.
5. Confirm the application. Until you press confirm, the application is only a draft and will not be sent for scrutiny.
6. Print the confirmed application and note the application number shown on it.
7. Submit the printed application with self-attested copies of your caste certificate, identity proof and bank passbook to the district fisheries office or the office named in the acknowledgement, within the period stated on the printout.

If you do not have internet access, take your documents to the nearest e-Gram centre or Common Service Centre and ask the operator to file the i-Khedut application for you. The application still has to be printed and submitted physically for verification.

How much money is paid and when?

Fish Seed Stocking assistance reimburses the full cost of the fish seed and its transport. There is no published rupee ceiling for this component; the amount sanctioned follows the seed quantity approved for the water body and the rates prevailing at the hatchery.

Payment is released after the district fisheries office verifies that the seed was actually purchased and released into the approved water body. Beneficiaries should keep the hatchery bill and the transport bill, because the sanction is settled against those documents. The money is credited by direct transfer to the bank account recorded in the application.

How do I check the status of my application?

1. Return to ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in and open the application status option.
2. Enter your application number and the registered mobile number or Aadhaar number used at the time of filing.
3. The screen shows whether the application is pending scrutiny, sanctioned or rejected.

If the status has not moved for several weeks, contact the district fisheries officer for your district. That office, not the state headquarters, holds the file at the scrutiny stage.

Why applications are rejected, and how to fix them

• Caste certificate problems: expired certificate, a name that does not match the identity proof, or a certificate issued outside Gujarat. Get a fresh certificate from the mamlatdar before reapplying.
• Bank account not in the applicant's name, or an account that has become dormant. Open or reactivate an account in your own name.
• No documented right over the water body. Attach the lease, allotment letter or society resolution covering the reservoir or tank.
• Application filed outside the window. i-Khedut accepts applications only while the component's window is open, and late applications are not carried forward.
• Draft never confirmed. An unconfirmed i-Khedut application does not reach the department at all.

Where to raise a grievance

Raise a first grievance with the district fisheries office handling your application, quoting the i-Khedut application number. Unresolved matters go to the Commissioner of Fisheries, 3rd Floor, Block No. 10, Jeevraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar, whose office is listed on fisheries.gujarat.gov.in. The state also accepts written grievances through the Chief Minister's online grievance system for Gujarat.

Applying for this scheme is free. No middleman can charge a fee to add your name to a sanction list, and no official will ask for your bank OTP.