Lok Sabha debate on Maritime University Bill: Orissa MPs make cursory requests for a branch in Orissa
Following are excerpts from http://164.100.24.209/newls/textofdebatedetail.aspx?sdate=10/21/2008.
INDIAN MARITIME UNIVERSITY BILL
1729 hours
THE MINISTER OF SHIPPING, ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS (SHRI T.R. BAALU): Sir, I beg to move:
“That the Bill to establish and incorporate a teaching and affiliating University at the national level to facilitate and promote maritime studies and research and to achieve excellence in areas of marine science and technology, marine environment and other related fields, and to provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto, be taken into consideration.”
India has had a long maritime tradition and is the 20th largest maritime country in the world. The single largest contributing factor to this glorious tradition is the presence of a strong, dedicated, efficient and reliable reservoir of officer and ratings of the Merchant Navy in India. Presently, 27,000 officers and 55,000 ratings are employed on Indian and foreign flag vessels. The ever-increasing demand of Indian seafarers worldwide is a testament of the quality of education and training received in India. However, of late, India has been facing a stiff challenge to her position in this regard from countries like Phillippines, China and Bangladesh. Hence, there is a need to further upgrade our training capacity and capabilities so that India stays ahead of the other nations in this sector and is able to meet the projected global shortage of 27,000 officers by the year 2015. There is also a need to augment the share of India in the world maritime manpower fleet from the present level of around 6 per cent to[U78] at least 20 per cent.
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Further, the 29 per cent share of Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development countries is dwindling rapidly due to lack of interest of their youth in this career and this presents an opportunity that we should exploit to our advantage. With the growth of the maritime sector in the country such as the port, shipping, ship-building, inland water transport and offshore exploration sectors, the need for development of manpower in new disciplines such as maritime security, maritime law, oceanography, marine insurance, ocean engineering, ship-building and other relevant areas has become imperative.
To meet the requirement of trained manpower in the merchant maritime fleet under the Indian flag as also foreign flag vessels, the Directorate General of Shipping, Department of Shipping imparts pre-sea and post-sea training in engineering and in the nautical discipline through the Lal Bahadur Shastri College of Advanced Maritime Studies and Research, Mumbai, Training Ship Chanakya, Navi Mumbai and the Marine Engineering and Research Institute, Kolkata and Mumbai. For further strengthening the institutional framework for imparting maritime training in India, the Government decided to establish a Society namely the Indian Institute of Maritime Studies on 6th June, 2002 placing these four Government-run Maritime Institutions within the domain of this Society. The Government also set up the National Institute of Port Management now renamed as National Maritime Academy, Chennai and Indian Institute of Port Management, Kolkata as registered Societies for capacity building of personnel of port and shipping industry.
In order to encourage private sector participation in maritime training, the Government of India announced liberalised guidelines in 1997 and as a result, around 125 training institutes have come up in the Government and in the private sector, which impart both pre-sea and post-sea training. The Directorate General of Shipping, Mumbai, recognises the private institutes.
It has been seen that the present maritime training set up in the country does not ensure uniform standards and is inadequate in terms of its span of academic coverage, and thus it cannot cope with the future growth opportunities. Hence, there is a need to strengthen its training infrastructure including setting up a university immediately.
The Committee on Maritime Education and Training set up by the Government in 1991, had recommended the establishment of an autonomous body under an Act of Parliament, to be designated as the Indian Maritime University, to manage, control, supervise, direct and monitor the maritime training institutions, currently running under the Government control. An Expert Committee was constituted by this Ministry, which inter alia included representatives of the University Grants Commission, to look into the feasibility of the formation of an Indian Maritime University by an Act of Parliament under the aegis of this Ministry, which also strongly recommended the formation of Indian Maritime University. The Expenditure Reforms Commission in its Ninth Report had also recommended that the IIMS should be given the status of a deemed university or of an Indian Institute of Technology and should become totally autonomous.
Formation of the IMU will facilitate and promote maritime studies, research and extension work with focus on emerging areas of studies including marine science and technology, marine environment, socio-economic, legal and other related fields, and also to achieve excellence in these and connected fields. It will promote advanced knowledge by providing institutional and research facilities in such branches of learning as it may deem fit, make provisions for integrated courses in science and other key areas of marine technology and allied disciplines. As we have a sizeable number of private institutions imparting maritime education and training, the University will standardise the quality of such education and training through affiliation and academic supervision.
The Government had introduced the Indian Maritime University Bill, 2007 on 13th March, 2007 in the Lok Sabha. The Bill was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture on 19th March, 2007 for examination and report. The Committee examined the Bill and presented its 132nd Report on IMU Bill, 2007, on 17th April, 2008. The Government has considered the Report of the hon. Committee and has accepted 24 of their recommendations.
One of the recommendations of the Committee is that there must be one Maritime University each in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Visakhapatnam and Kochi. The Government is of the view that, to begin with, establishment of several Universities at the same time would create difficulties. It would require far greater skilled, human and financial resources than are available and would carry the danger of dilution of input
It would also deny the investment of learning and experience gained from setting up the first University into subsequent Universities. It would also be administratively premature, as the demand, location and jurisdiction issues would first need to be adequately studied to enable rational investment decisions. Further, much of the spadework for establishing the Indian Maritime University at Chennai has since been done. Based on the experience gained, the Government will review, at an appropriate stage, the requirement of more Universities and a decision would be taken keeping in view the enabling factors like availability of land, resources, presence of maritime institutes in the region, etc.
We, therefore, propose to establish the Indian Maritime University in Chennai with campuses in Kolkata, Mumbai and Visakhapatnam by an Act of Parliament.
The existing seven Government and Government-aided maritime training and research institutes, viz. Marine Engineering and Research Institute (MERI), Kolkata, Marine Engineering and Research Institute (MERI), Mumbai, Lal Bahadur Shastri College of Advanced Maritime Studies and Research, Mumbai, T.S. Chanakya, Navi Mumbai, National Maritime Academy (NMA), Chennai, Indian Institute of Port Management (IIPM), Kolkata and the National Ship Design and Research Centre (NSDRC), Visakhapatnam will be merged with the IMU. The employees of the four training institutes under IIMS who will stand transferred to the IMU will have the option to continue on deemed deputation in the IMU on Government terms and conditions and also continue to retain/to be allotted Government residential accommodation on turn and avail of the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) facilities till their retirement. The employees of the NMA, IIPM and NSDRC shall have the option to continue in the IMU on the existing terms and conditions of respective institutes, till their retirement. All the employees shall also have the alternative option to join the IMU as per the service conditions of the University.
Sir, with these words, I now move the Indian Maritime University Bill, 2007 for consideration.
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1834 hours
SHRI B. MAHTAB (CUTTACK): At the outset, I should say that I welcome the Bill. The Standing Committee has already discussed this and has recommended it to the Government for consideration. I hope that the Minister will reply — while giving his explanation — as to why certain recommendations have not been adhered to. In course of time we will also get the Action Taken Report that the Committee had submitted to the Government. Hence, we will know why certain recommendations have not been accepted. …
There is a need to have a regulator who could look after the standards. The Indian Maritime University in Chennai will have campuses, as has been mentioned in the Bill, in Mumbai, Kolkata and in Vizag. Orissa has been left in between.[r96]
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We have an Academy at Paradip for the last 25 years. You can extend a campus to Paradip. Our contention would be, as has been mentioned by my previous speakers, that the attempt should be to build up new universities in this aspect. This is a forward-looking Bill. A Central University may be a light post, a guideline. But attempt should be made by the Government to set up more such universities so that the trainers can also be trained and better faculty members can come in from outside and train our people. Autonomous institutions also should come up.
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1843 hours
SHRI KHARABELA SWAIN (BALASORE): Mr. Chairman, Sir, I appreciate the requirement of setting up of a maritime training set up to develop a strong, dedicated, efficient and reliable reservoir of officers, . I also appreciate the need to bring in maritime technology, environment, legal and other related issues and to facilitate maritime studies and research. …
Lastly, I will appeal to the hon. Minister. Orissa is having a vast coastline; it is having a long maritime tradition. People went right up to Indonesia, Cambodia, and such other countries. So, in future, when he goes in for more and more campuses, will he consider opening up of another campus in Orissa? Thank you very much.
2 comments October 23rd, 2008