The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture suggested the union shipping ministry to allow the use of harmful paints by only commercial vessels.
In its latest report, the panel said the use of harmful paints by any ship, in fact would affect marine environment adversely. Therefore, the report asked the ministry to consider these aspects carefully.
The proposed amendments would be applicable to all Merchant Ships registered under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958… But it remains silent about the ‘non-government vessels on non-commercial service.
On March 18, the government introduced the Merchant Shipping Amendment Bill in Rajya Sabha. Later, the bill was referred to the Parliamentary committee headed by Sitaram Yechury for examination.
The bill proposes to prohibit all commercial ships barring warships and naval auxiliary from using anti-fouling paints, which has been found killing sea life and damaging marine environment.
The Committee said the Shipping Ministry even could not furnish any data about the number of such non-commercial ships saying that it had data about only merchant ships.
In the absence of such a data, the Committee feels, it is difficult to know the extent of the vessels being left out from the ambit of the proposed Bill, it said.
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