Mukhyamantri Maschyajibi Kalyan Yojana (MMKY)

What is Mukhyamantri Maschyajibi Kalyan Yojana?

Mukhyamantri Maschyajibi Kalyan Yojana, usually written as MMKY and spoken locally as Mukhyamantri Machhajibi Kalyan Yojana, is the state sector umbrella fisheries scheme of the Fisheries & Animal Resources Development Department, Government of Odisha. The Chief Minister launched MMKY on 21 November 2023, World Fisheries Day, with an outlay of Rs 448 crore for that year. The Odisha Cabinet later approved the full umbrella with 17 sub-schemes and a budgetary outlay of Rs 2,239 crore for the five financial years from 2024-25 to 2028-29.

MMKY exists because Odisha's fisheries resources are large but under-used. The department's own compendium records 7.07 lakh hectares of inland freshwater resources to 1.56 lakh hectares of tanks and ponds, 2.00 lakh hectares of reservoirs, 1.80 lakh hectares of lakes, swamps and jheels, and 1.71 lakh hectares of rivers and canals. On the coast, Odisha has a 480 km coastline and about 5.18 lakh marine fishers in 1.14 lakh families. Freshwater aquaculture production rose 44 per cent over five years, from 5.06 lakh metric tonnes in 2018-19 to 7.34 lakh metric tonnes in 2023-24.

According to the state government, MMKY is expected to reach about 14 lakh people over five years, roughly 6,67,500 fishers and 7,32,500 members of women self-help groups.

What MMKY sets out to do

• Raise fish production across freshwater, brackish water and marine sectors.
• Create employment and steady income for fishers and fish farmers.
• Bring women self-help groups into pisciculture through Gram Panchayat tanks.
• Modernise fishing craft, hatcheries, seed supply and processing infrastructure.

Which sub-schemes are covered under MMKY?

The MMKY compendium published by the department carries separate guidelines for each component. The main ones an individual can apply for are:

Who is eligible under Mukhyamantri Maschyajibi Kalyan Yojana?

Eligibility differs by sub-scheme, but the compendium applies a common set of conditions across the umbrella.

You can apply if:

• You are a permanent resident of Odisha and hold identity and residential proof including an Aadhaar card.
• You hold a bank account in your own name at a branch in Odisha, seeded with Aadhaar so DBT can reach it.
• You are a fish farmer, an active marine or inland fisher, an unemployed youth taking up aquaculture, or a member of a women self-help group, PFCS, FFPO or joint liability group, depending on the component.
• For land-based components, you hold the required land or pond free from all encumbrances, either owned or on a registered lease of at least seven years.
• For marine components, your boat is registered on ReAL Craft and your fishing licence is current.

You cannot apply: or are not eligible, if:

• Any member of your family has already received subsidy under the same sub-scheme in the last three years. MMKY counts the family as one unit, not each adult separately, and one family cannot draw multiple benefits under one sub-scheme.
• You are not a resident of Odisha or hold no bank account in the state.
• Your land is disputed, encroached or carries encumbrances, or you cannot produce the RoR and a certified sketch map.
• For the boat and engine components, you already drew subsidy for a boat or engine under any government scheme within the cut-off window — five years for boats and engines, three years for nets; or you acquired a boat by transfer of ownership that had already been motorised on subsidy inside that window.
• For bio-floc, you already hold six or more subsidised bio-floc tanks; assistance is capped at six tanks in total across all schemes.

Preference in selection goes to SC, ST, PWD and transgender applicants across the land-based components, and to unemployed educated youth in the bio-floc component.

How to apply for MMKY sub-schemes

1. Register on Go-Sugam. Open sugam.odisha.gov.in, Odisha's single-window portal for agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry and fisheries schemes, and register with a mobile number linked to your Aadhaar.
2. Open the application form for the MMKY sub-scheme you want, fill in your personal, land or boat and bank details, and upload the scanned documents from the checklist for that component.
3. Submit the form and note the application number. If the portal will not accept your Bhulekh RoR, submit the same application offline in the prescribed format to the Assistant Fisheries Officer of your block, or the AFO of your marine extension unit for coastal components. The officer must upload every offline application to Go-Sugam before any go-ahead is issued.
4. Field verification. The Assistant Fisheries Officer visits your site within 15 days, takes geo-tagged photographs and files a technical feasibility report to the District Fisheries Officer.
5. District Level Committee approval. The DFO places all eligible cases before the District Level Committee chaired by the Collector, constituted under FARD notification 834/FARD dated 21 January 2023, within 30 days of receiving the application.
6. Collect the go-ahead letter issued within 15 days of DLC approval, then create the asset: excavate the pond, install the bio-floc unit, buy the engine or boat. Do not start work before the go-ahead letter, because back-ended subsidy is only paid on assets created after it.
7. Claim the subsidy. Inform the AFO on completion. After 100 per cent physical verification, submission of the utilisation certificate, GST bills, geo-tagged photographs and online transaction receipts, the DFO releases subsidy by DBT within 15 days of joint inspection.

How much benefit does MMKY provide?

MMKY assistance is back-ended subsidy, not an upfront grant. You spend first, and the department reimburses the admissible share into your account after verification.

The rate structure is consistent across the umbrella. General category applicants get 40 or 50 per cent depending on the component. SC, ST, women, PWD and transgender applicants get 50 or 60 per cent. A disability certificate showing 40 per cent or more disability under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 is accepted for the PWD slab, and a transgender identity certificate issued by the District Magistrate under the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019 is accepted for the transgender slab.

The single largest individual benefit is under the new boat, engine and net component, where the unit cost is Rs 10 lakh and the maximum assistance reaches Rs 6 lakh for an SC, ST, woman, PWD or transgender beneficiary. The smallest and most widely paid is the fishing-ban livelihood support of Rs 15,000 a year, paid in one instalment to one member of each affected family.

How to check your MMKY application status

1. Log in to sugam.odisha.gov.in with your registered mobile number and password and open the dashboard, which shows the current stage of each application.
2. Ask your block Assistant Fisheries Officer whether the field verification report has been submitted, since this is where most applications sit longest.
3. Contact the District Fisheries Officer to check whether your case went to the District Level Committee and whether a go-ahead letter has been issued.
4. After completing the work, follow up with the DFO on the utilisation certificate and subsidy release, which is due within 15 days of the joint inspection.

Approved beneficiary lists are also uploaded by District Fisheries Officers to the Go-Sugam portal and, for the marine components, communicated to the Directorate for publication on its website.

Why MMKY applications get rejected

• Family already benefited under the same sub-scheme within the last three years, the most common ground for rejection.
• Encumbered, disputed or joint land without the required affidavit sworn before an Executive Magistrate carrying the consent of co-owners or legal heirs.
• Lease shorter than seven years, or an unregistered lease agreement.
• Bank account outside Odisha or not seeded with Aadhaar, which blocks DBT.
• Work started before the go-ahead letter, which makes the asset ineligible for back-ended subsidy.
• Cash payments above Rs 20,000 per item, since online transaction receipts by RTGS, NEFT or UPI are mandatory for release of subsidy on any item costing Rs 20,000 or more.
• Lapsed fishing licence or unregistered boat in the marine components.
• No progress within three months of the go-ahead, after which the DFO issues a one-month notice and can cancel the case.

Most of these are fixable. Get the affidavit registered, re-execute the lease, open an Odisha bank account and seed it with Aadhaar, and re-apply in the next target cycle.

Help and grievance redressal for MMKY

• Fisheries & Animal Resources Development Department, Odisha: Lok Seva Bhavan, Sachivalaya Marg, Bhubaneswar 751001. Telephone (0674) 2536985 and (0674) 2322960, fax (0674) 2390681, email fardsec.od@nic.in.
• District Fisheries Officer of your district for scheme selection, go-ahead and subsidy release disputes.
• Additional Fisheries Officer (Marine) or DFO (B&T), Balugaon for all marine components.
• Directorate of Fisheries, Odisha, Cuttack for escalation, with supervision by Zonal Deputy Directors and the Additional Director of Fisheries (Technical).

Applying under MMKY is free. No dealer, boat builder or middleman can charge you a fee to have your name added to a beneficiary list, and subsidy is never released directly to a supplier, the compendium states plainly that subsidy must go to the beneficiary's own account or, in bank finance cases, to the beneficiary's loan account.