The government has allocated over 11,903 tonnes of rice under the special vulnerable group feeding (VGF) scheme for the jobless fishermen during 65 days official fishing ban period from May 20 to July 23, reports BSS.
“A total of 3, 96,786 fishermen families located in 51upazilas including the Chattogram city under 12 coastal districts will get the second installment of the VGF”, said a release issued by the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock on Friday.
The government is providing the VGF allocation under the humanitarian assistance programme.
Under the programme, each fishermen family will get 30kgs rice for 23 days (from July 1 to 23), according to the release.
The fisheries and livestock ministry issued an approval order in favor to the concerned deputy commissioners (DCs) on August 19 with an instruction to withdraw and disburse the consignment within September 15, the release said.
The ministry has also further instructed the district chiefs that only those [fishermen] who are identified as marine fishermen and have identity card would be entitled to get the allocation.
In the first VGF installment, a total of 4,19,589 fishermen families located in 44 upazilas under 12 coastal districts got over 23,496 tonnes of rice for 42 days fishing ban period.
For balanced breeding and well conservation of the marine fisheries, the government has been imposing ban on catching all kinds of fish species and crustaceans which include the crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill, barnacles brine shrimp, copepods, ostracods and mantis shrimp, for 65 days every year from May 20 to July 23 at the economic maritime areas of the Bay of Bengal since 2015.