West Bengal is eyeing a sizeable share of at least 20 per cent from the total national corpus of Rs 3,000 crore meant for ‘Blue Revolution’. “We are definitely eyeing at more than 20 per cent of the Rs 3,000 crore national fund meant for development of marine sector for Blue Revolution,” West Bengal State Fisheries Development Corporation managing director Soumyajit Das told PTI. The state, he said, has already sent proposal worth Rs 250 crore for FY 2016-17 of which proposals totalling about Rs 100 crore is toward processing, Rs 100 crore for de-siltation and rest Rs 50 crore for culture is sent to the Centre for approval. National Fisheries Development Board is aiming at eight per cent productivity growth touching 15 million tonne production by 2020 through its Rs 3,000 crore umbrella Blue Revolution. West Bengal fish production is 1.7 million tonne or 20 per cent of national production but the majority of it is consumed. Exports account for 11 per cent of the country’s fish produce. West Bengal government has decided to create special fishery zones and had undertaken several projects toward development of fisheries. Some 1.38 lakh fishery farmers have been provided with biometric cards.
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