Fishermen set to receive biometric card: Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government made biometric card mandatory for fishermen involved in offshore and deep-sea fishing. The initiative will help the government keep vigil on the activities of infiltrators at the coast.

The decision was taken at the second state-level coastal security coordination meeting chaired by chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi on Wednesday evening, a senior government official said on Thursday.

As per the move, all the fishermen venturing into the sea will be provided waterproof biometric identity card. It will be mandatory for them to take the biometric card with them while fishing.

A total of 3,46,948 fishermen have been identified for availing the biometric card, out of them the photograph of 3,45,649 has been taken for the card. The process for taking photographs of rest of the fishermen will be finished by end of October.

Laying emphasis on the coastal security, the government has set up five marine police stations in first phase at Balaramgadi in Balasore district, Dhamra in Bhadrak, Jambu in Kendrapara, Paradip in Jagatsinghpur and Aryapali in Ganjam district.

In second phase, 13 marine police stations have been set up in Talasari and Kasaphal area in Balasore, Chudamani and Kasia in Bhadrak, Talchua and Jatadhari in Kendrapara, Astarang, Chandrabhaga and Penthakata in Puri.