A Portal on ID Cards for Fishermen’ (digitized Identity cards to Fishermen of A&N Islands) and another Portal on Adventure Sports Fishing’ (for Adventure Sports Fishing in A&N Islands) was launched by the Chief Secretary, A&N Administration, Mr Anindo Majumdar in the conference hall of Secretariat on Wednesday. The PCCF, Department of Environment & Forests, A&N Islands, Dr. Alok Saxena, PCCF (WL), Mr M. S. Negi, Secretary (Fisheries), Mr Ramesh Verma, SP, South Andaman, Mr Atmaram Deshpande, Director, Tourism, Mr Amit Anand, fishermen and game fishing boat owners were present on the occasion. Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Secretary congratulated the Directorate of Fisheries for implementing online portals for fishermen and boat owners of game fishing vessels and lauded NIC for developing the portals. He said, Portal on ID Cards for Fishermen’ of A&N Islands will be of real help to the fishermen as they can now have access to issuance of unique ID Cards through online from anywhere. The Chief Secretary also welcomed suggestions/ feedbacks from the boat owners of Adventure Sports Fishing for further improvement of the portal. He said, once the OFC project takes shape, the A&N Islands will have a very good connectivity. He also exhorted the Department of Fisheries to ensure that the portals remain interactive. The Chief Secretary also handed over ID cards generated online to few fishermen on the occasion. He also handed over e-permit to one of the Adventure Sports Fishing’ boat owner. The Secretary, Fisheries, Mr Ramesh Verma, while speaking informed that this year, as many as 8000 ID cards will be issued to fishermen in all three districts of A&N Islands. He said fishermen can renew their ID cards by visiting the zonal office or through any CSCs. Presently, 150 fishermen unique ID number of the vessels and fishermen details are available in the portal, he said. Explaining about the functioning of the portals, the State Informatics Officer, NIC, Mr Narayanan said the Portal on ID Cards for Fishermen’ will enable the Department of Fisheries to capture details of fishermen once and issue new ID cards every year in a time bound manner. The portal captures Unique ID proof for each fisherman like Aadhar, Biometirc Card, ECIL number etc besides separate login rights are provided for each zonal office to update the portal for applications received by them. The Zonal office will then approve the entered application and generate Uinque ID card for all fishermen employed for boats as one set in bi-lingual format. The ID number will remain constant for fishermen across the years and ID cards will be generated online. Boat owners can also track online status of application in the portal while the e-permit has QR’ code which can be viewed in mobile phones. The details of e-permits issued and advance sailing list can also be accessed, he added. The portal facilitates coastal security agencies to have access rights to download e-permit and report issues etc. The portal also provides details and procedures for getting e-permits, documents required, sailing routes, safety precautions and emergency contacts etc. Earlier, the Director, Directorate of Fisheries, Mr Chandrashekar welcomed the gathering. The portal is being implemented by the Directorate of Fisheries, A&N Administration and is developed and hosted by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Andaman State Unit, Port Blair.