Fishermen Cooperative Scheme (Madhya Pradesh)

What is the Fishermen Cooperative Scheme?

Fishermen Cooperative Scheme is a component of the Fisherman Welfare and Fisheries Development Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh, in effect since 1 December 1994 according to the Khargone district Fisheries page. The scheme offers a grant of Rs 1,500 per hectare to fishery institutions that hold a lease on a government irrigation pond, in support of fish culture in that water body.

Two features of the component distinguish it from the department's other pond schemes and are worth getting right before applying.

The beneficiary is an institution, not a person. The grant goes to a registered fishermen's cooperative society, and it is credited to the society's account. Individual members do not receive a separate share of it, and an individual fisherman cannot claim it on his own behalf.

The water body is an irrigation pond. Irrigation tanks and reservoirs built and held by the Water Resources Department are a different class of water from the village ponds held by gram panchayats. They are usually larger, they are managed primarily for irrigation rather than fish, and their water level swings sharply with the irrigation calendar. Leasing them for fish culture is therefore normally done collectively, through a society that can carry the risk and share the labour of stocking, guarding and harvesting a large sheet of water.

Fishermen's cooperative societies are the backbone of inland fisheries in Madhya Pradesh. The state's fisheries administration has for decades allotted water bodies preferentially to societies of traditional fishing communities, and this component is the small recurring grant attached to that arrangement, calculated on the leased water area.

Who is eligible for the Fishermen Cooperative Scheme?

Your society can apply if:

• It is a registered fishermen's cooperative society in Madhya Pradesh — a fishery institution in the language of the district page.
• It holds a current lease on a government irrigation pond.
• Its dues are cleared, since the district page requires the application to be submitted with certified dues.
• It has a working bank account in the society's name for the grant.

You cannot apply if:

• You are an individual fisherman or fish farmer. This component is for institutions, and an individual is not eligible under it; the Fisheries Extension Scheme, at Rs 15,000 per hectare, is the individual route for a rural pond lease.
• Your society is unregistered, or its registration has lapsed.
• The society's lease has expired or is under dispute.
• The society has arrears of lease rent or departmental dues, which hold the file until cleared.
• The pond is a private water body rather than a government irrigation pond.
• The district target for the year is exhausted, in which case the case waits for the next allocation.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the Fishermen Cooperative Scheme

1. Confirm the society's standing. Check that the registration is current, that the managing committee is in office, and that the lease on the irrigation pond has not expired.
2. Clear the dues and get them certified. Pay any outstanding lease rent or departmental dues and obtain a written certificate from the leasing authority, because the district page makes certified dues part of the application itself.
3. Pass a managing committee resolution authorising the application and naming the office bearer who will sign and follow it up.
4. Fill the departmental application form, recording the pond's location, the leased water area in hectares, the lease period and the society's bank account.
5. Submit the form with the certified dues to the regional or district fisheries officer, routed through the Fisheries Department field officer for the area.
6. Support the departmental inspection of the pond and produce the lease and registration papers when asked.
7. Collect the sanction order and receive the Rs 1,500 per hectare grant in the society's bank account.

How do I check the status of a society's application?

Fishermen Cooperative Scheme is administered offline, so there is no public tracking page. Follow up in sequence:

1. Ask the field officer whether the file has been forwarded, and on what date.
2. Ask the District Fisheries Officer or Assistant Director whether the pond inspection is done and whether sanction has issued against the year's target.
3. Use the phone directory and departmental office list published on mpfisheries.gov.in to reach the correct office.
4. If nothing moves, file a complaint on the CM Helpline, 181; the department's website carries a CM Helpline dashboard for monitoring such cases.

Why do society applications get held up?

• Lease expired or not renewed for the current period.
• Certified dues missing, or arrears of lease rent outstanding.
• Society registration lapsed, or no valid managing committee in office.
• Leased area disputed between the lease deed and the measured water spread, which matters because the grant is per hectare.
• Competing claims on the same irrigation pond from more than one society.
• District target exhausted for the financial year.

Most of these are documentary and fixable at the society's own end. Renew the registration, hold the elections, pay the rent, and get the certificate before filing rather than after.

What else is available to fishermen's societies in Madhya Pradesh?

The Fisherman Welfare and Fisheries Development Department also implements Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, the centrally sponsored fisheries scheme, and the state's Mukhyamantri Machhua Samridhi Yojana. The department has framed the Madhya Pradesh Integrated Fisheries Policy 2026, which covers cage establishment and operation and related activities in water bodies managed by the department, district councils and the Fish Federation, on both entrepreneur and beneficiary-based models. Cage culture in an irrigation reservoir is a substantially larger proposition than a per-hectare stocking grant, and a society that already holds a reservoir lease should ask the district office about that route as well.

Where to complain

• Fisheries Department field officer, for form, dues and forwarding issues.
• District Fisheries Officer or Assistant Director, for sanction and inspection delays.
• mpfisheries.gov.in, for the department's phone directory and office list.
• CM Helpline 181, the Madhya Pradesh statewide grievance line.

The grant is credited to the society's own account. No official or intermediary is entitled to a share of it.

A note on published information

The Madhya Pradesh government has not published a detailed statewide guideline for this component online. The Rs 1,500 per hectare rate, the 1 December 1994 effective date, the lease-holding fishery institution eligibility and the "form with certified dues to the regional officer" route are what the district Fisheries page states; that page itself notes that it does not specify processing timelines or a full document list. For the current year's district target and the precise conditions attached to a sanction, the district fisheries office is the authoritative source.