One of the 13 schemes provided by the state department of fisheries, subsidizes the purchase of motorcycles, autorickshaws and insulated trucks, which will be used to sell fish. This will use the recently-allocated funds by the central government under Blue Revolution for the year 2016-17. The scheme offers 50% subsidy to the fish vendor for purchasing any of these vehicles. “The fish vans are successfully operating in the state, and now the motorcycles will be useful in bringing fish to the consumer instead of the other way round. A motorcycle with an ice box will give easier access for fishmongers to the interior regions of villages,” said fisheries superintendent Smita Majumdar. With applications coming in since November last year, the fisheries department has received 92 entries so far from people who wish to carry out mobile fish selling on bikes. Of these, eight have received an NOC (no objection certificate) from the fisheries department for purchase of motorcycles till now. These eight fish vendors will be permitted to quote their own prices for sale of items. However, they have been instructed to sell fish only within the constituency of their residence. “This is to ensure that they do not sabotage the local market’s business. If there are more than one motorcycle vendors within the same constituency, we will designate an area of operation to each of them,” added Mazumdar. Three auto rickshaws and eight insulated trucks of ten-ton capacity and three insulated trucks of six-ton capacity have received the NOC. A Chapora-based fish vendor Santosh Shankar Parab, who availed of this scheme said, “I was into motorcycle fish selling for the past two years. After availing the subsidy, I upgraded to a new vehicle and the icebox will enhance my business.” Another applicant, Dayanand Gaonkar said, “I’ve got the NOC letter from fisheries and am looking forward to start this venture.”