A.P. Maritime Board opposes draft Indian Ports Bill, 2020
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The Andhra Pradesh Maritime Board (APMB), which launched into an formidable programme of constructing a string of ports and fishing harbours alongside its practically 975-km-long shoreline, is strongly opposing the draft Indian Ports Bill, 2020, primarily as a result of it proposes the institution of a single Maritime Port Regulatory Authority for all minor ports.
The board expressed its reservations in writing to the Secretary of Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways lately by highlighting the truth that the laws sought to usurp the powers of minor ports whereas sparing the most important ports to have their very own regulatory authorities beneath the Major Ports Regulatory Authority Act, 2020.
The APMB mentioned minor ports have been a topic beneath the Concurrent listing of the Constitution and that by taking away the powers of maritime boards/State governments associated to minor ports, the Union authorities could be depriving the “right of the States to drive their economies”.
The APMB that identified that it was the State governments which offered land and created infrastructure for the event of minor ports.
It insisted that the draft Indian Ports Bill, 2020 needs to be referred to the Maritime States’ Development Council (MSDC) to kind out the problems being raised by the States and that if the Centre nonetheless supposed to proceed to enact the Bill with out taking the stakeholders into confidence, at the very least the prevailing ports and people beneath building needs to be exempted.
Speaking to The Hindu, APMB CEO N.P. Ramakrishna Reddy mentioned that because the minor ports have been a matter of Pre-Constitutional Law, the draft Indian Ports Bill, 2020 must be settled by the Law Commission of India by taking into account the views of all maritime States.
He said that the Bill had not been positioned earlier than the MSDC although the proposal to repeal the Indian Ports Act of 1908 was initiated by means of the draft Indian Ports Bill, 2018 and the current Bill was introduced forth.
“Since the overall control on ports, including land and the waterfront (up to baseline in inland waters), is in the purview of respective maritime States, the Centre cannot encroach upon the powers of the State governments,” Mr. Reddy asserted, whereas emphasising on the Centre’s duty to look into the observations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee additionally.
