NEW DELHI: Parliament on Wednesday passed the Coastal Aquaculture Authority (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which aims to decriminalise the offences committed in carrying out coastal aquaculture activities and ensure ease of doing business.
The bill was cleared by the Rajya Sabha by a voice vote on Wednesday. It was passed in the Lok Sabha on August 7.
Replying to a debate on the bill in Rajya Sabha, Parshottam Rupala, Minister of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, said that India has benefitted from the Green Revolution and the White Revolution.
"Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, India will have a Blue Revolution which will take the fishermen community ahead," Rupala said.
The Coastal Aquaculture Authority (Amendment) Bill seeks to expand its scope, remove regulatory gaps and reduce the compliance burden without diluting environmental protection rules in the coastal areas.
It removes provision of imprisonment for a period of up to three years and imposes only a penalty in line with the principle of decriminalising civil transgressions.
It also seeks to fine-tune the operational procedures of the Coastal Aquaculture Authority to make it more responsive to the needs of the stakeholders, promote newer forms of environment-friendly coastal aquaculture like cage culture and seaweed culture, and usher in global best practices in this sector, including mapping and zonation of aquaculture areas, quality assurance and safe aquaculture products.
The bill aims to encourage the establishment of facilities in areas having direct access to seawater to produce genetically improved and disease-free broodstocks and seed for use in coastal aquaculture, besides preventing the use of antibiotics and pharmacologically active substances, which are harmful to human health in coastal aquaculture.
The amendment bill provides for broad-basing "coastal aquaculture" to comprehensively cover all activities of coastal aquaculture under its purview.
It removes ambiguity in the principal Act between farm and other verticals of coastal aquaculture.
Many of administrative matters which were ambiguous have been suitably resolved under the bill for administrative efficiency and accountability.
The bill provides that the registration granted under the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act shall prevail and be treated as valid permission under CRZ notification with the intention of enabling lakhs of small marginal aquaculture farmers to avoid the possible need for obtaining CRZ clearances from multiple agencies.