Over 10,000 families of fishing community in four coastal districts have been identified to be covered under the Rice for Olive Ridley Conservation (RORC) scheme.
Each of these families will be provided with 25 kgs of rice at ` one per kg every month and a special card will be issued to avail this provision under the scheme.
The scheme, which will come into effect from April 1, aims at giving fisherfolks food security since they are barred from fishing along the coast during mass nesting of endangered Olive Ridley turtles from November to May.
The Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department along with Fisheries and Animal Resources Development Department have been entrusted the responsibility of implementing the scheme.
As many as 10,133 fishermen families have been identified under the scheme in Kendrapara, Puri, Ganjam and Bhadrak districts where the endangered marine species arrive for nesting during winter.
The operational guidelines issued by Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Department envisage that the families not having either BPL or Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) cards will be provided special RORC ration cards.
The cards will be printed at the block level from the beneficiary list available in the database.
To prevent duplication or forgery, the RORC cards will contain photo of the head of the family and will be laminated. Block Development Officers will be the issuing authorities.
All the beneficiaries have been registered online and indicated the nearest fair price shop (FPS) from where the rice will be supplied only after distribution of the RORC cards is complete. The State Government has already allocated rice under the scheme.
The scheme was devised after a prolonged struggle by fishermen communities who were up in arms against the ban. The Odisha State Civil Supplies Corporation will execute the scheme.