Assistance to Scheduled Castes for Fisheries: Scheme for Fish Sale Equipment (Gujarat)

What is the Fish Sale Equipment scheme in Gujarat?

Assistance to Scheduled Castes for Fisheries: Scheme for Fish Sale Equipment is a Scheduled Caste sub-plan component of the Commissioner of Fisheries, Gujarat, which sits under the state's Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department. The scheme subsidises the small equipment a fish seller needs between the landing point and the customer.

According to the myScheme record maintained for the Gujarat Fisheries Commissionerate, the assistance is 50 percent of a notified unit cost of Rs 15,000, capped at Rs 7,500, given once in a lifetime. The unit is broken into four notified components: an insulated box at Rs 1,000, a box at Rs 500, a renkadi at Rs 5,000 and a weighing unit at Rs 1,000.

The logic behind the scheme is loss reduction rather than production. A Scheduled Caste fisher who lands a catch but has no insulated box loses value within hours in Gujarat's summer heat, and one who sells without a weighing unit sells on the buyer's estimate. Both problems are cheap to fix and both are exactly what this component pays for. The renkadi. The small hand-cart used to carry fish to a market or along a selling route, is the largest single item in the unit at Rs 5,000.

Key features

• State-funded Scheduled Caste sub-plan component, not centrally sponsored.
• 50 percent subsidy, maximum Rs 7,500, against a Rs 15,000 unit.
• One-time lifetime benefit per beneficiary.
• Applied for online on i-Khedut, verified at district level, paid by direct transfer.

Who is eligible for Fish Sale Equipment assistance?

You can apply if:

• You belong to a Scheduled Caste listed for Gujarat and hold a current caste certificate from the competent revenue authority.
• You are 18 years or older on the date of application.
• You are engaged in inland fisheries in Gujarat, individually or as a member of a fishermen's co-operative society or self-help group, and you sell fish.
• You hold a bank account in your own name.
• You have not previously received this one-time equipment assistance.

You cannot apply if:

• You are not from a Scheduled Caste. This component is financed from the Scheduled Caste sub-plan; general-category and Scheduled Tribe applicants are not eligible here and should look at Gujarat's general fisheries components or the tribal sub-plan equivalents on the same portal.
• You are under 18 years of age.
• You have already drawn this benefit once. The lifetime limit is checked against the beneficiary record before sanction.
• You have no bank account in your own name, since the subsidy is paid only by direct transfer.
• You apply after the i-Khedut window closes for the financial year.

What documents do I need?

Take a quotation from the supplier before you file, not after. The sanction is worked out against the notified component costs and the quotation together, and an application filed with no cost evidence at all usually comes back for resubmission.

How to apply for Fish Sale Equipment assistance

1. Open ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in and go to the schemes section of the portal.
2. Choose the fisheries department, then look for the Scheduled Caste fish sale equipment component. If the component is not visible, the application window is closed for now.
3. Register as a new applicant if this is your first i-Khedut application, giving your district, taluka and village. Existing users log in instead.
4. Complete the application with your personal details, caste certificate number, bank account details and the equipment you intend to buy.
5. Confirm the application, an unconfirmed draft is never forwarded — and then print it.
6. Submit the printed application with self-attested copies of the caste certificate, identity proof, bank passbook and equipment quotation to the district fisheries office within the period stated on the printout.
7. Buy the equipment after sanction, keep the bill, and produce it for verification so the subsidy can be released.

Applicants without internet access can have the i-Khedut form filed at an e-Gram centre or a Common Service Centre. The printed copy still has to reach the district office.

How much is paid, and how?

The maximum assistance is Rs 7,500, being 50 percent of the Rs 15,000 unit. The balance is the beneficiary's own contribution. Because the components are notified individually, an applicant who buys only some of the items receives 50 percent of those items' notified cost rather than the full Rs 7,500.

Payment is released after physical verification of the purchase by the district fisheries office and is credited by direct transfer to the account recorded in the application. There is no cash disbursement and no payment to a supplier on the beneficiary's behalf.

How do I check my application status?

1. Go to ikhedut.gujarat.gov.in and open the application status option.
2. Enter your application number along with the mobile or Aadhaar number used at the time of filing.
3. The portal shows whether the application is under scrutiny, sanctioned or rejected.

For a file stuck at scrutiny, the district fisheries officer is the right person to approach, since sanction for this component is handled at district level.

Common reasons applications fail

• Caste certificate mismatch or expiry, the name on the certificate differs from the bank passbook, or the certificate was issued by another state.
• Benefit already availed. The lifetime limit is enforced from the beneficiary database, and a repeat claim is rejected at scrutiny.
• No cost evidence. Applications with neither a quotation nor a bill cannot be costed.
• Bank account in someone else's name, or an account that has gone dormant and cannot receive a direct transfer.
• Late filing. i-Khedut windows are short and applications made after the closing date are not held over to the next round.
• Draft not confirmed on the portal, so the department never receives it.

How does this fit with Gujarat's other fisheries schemes?

Fish Sale Equipment assistance is one of several small Scheduled Caste sub-plan components the Fisheries Commissionerate runs side by side on i-Khedut. Two others are commonly claimed by the same households: fish seed stocking, which covers 100 percent of fish seed and its transport cost, and boat and net assistance, which pays 50 percent of cost up to Rs 7,500 for a tin boat-net unit or Rs 15,000 for an FRP unit. A household can hold a sanction under more than one component, because each has its own ceiling and its own conditions; seed stocking carries a one-year reclamation period, boat and net carries six years, and fish sale equipment is a once-in-a-lifetime benefit.

Gujarat's marine fishers are served by a different set of schemes listed on fisheries.gujarat.gov.in: kerosene assistance, a diesel VAT relief scheme, fisherman accident assistance and a fishermen group accident insurance scheme. Those are not restricted to Scheduled Caste beneficiaries and are administered through the Commissionerate's own systems rather than through i-Khedut, so a marine fisher looking for support should start there instead of with this component.

Where do I complain if nothing moves?

Raise the matter first with the district fisheries office that received your printed application, quoting your i-Khedut application number and the date. If it is still unresolved, write to the Commissioner of Fisheries, 3rd Floor, Block No. 10, Jeevraj Mehta Bhavan, Gandhinagar, the office address published on fisheries.gujarat.gov.in. Gujarat's state online grievance system is the further escalation route.

Applying is free of charge. No agent can charge a commission for a sanction, and no official has any reason to ask for your bank OTP or ATM PIN.