The Marine Fisheries Bill 2020 has been placed in the parliament with a view to update the existing ordinance as the country can ensure well management and preservation of the marine resources in the Bay of Bengal.
State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Ashraf Ali Khan Khasru on Wednesday (Jan 29) placed the bill in the Parliament with Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the chair, reports state news agency BSS.
Placing the bill, the state minister said the proposed law will be enacted by replacing ‘The Marine Fisheries Ordinance 1983’as the ordinance has already been declared null and void by the apex court of the country in 2011.
The enactment of the new law is necessary to make the update of the ordinance as the country has owned additional 118,113 square kilometers area in the Bay of Bengal following a legal battle held internationally during the regime of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
After the significant victory in the Bay of Bengal, the country needs to enact a comprehensive law for well management of the fisheries and marine resources, determine the fisheries resource in the newly achieved economic zone in the sea and containing illegal and exorbitant fisheries catching by the foreign and local fishing vessels.
The State Minister urged the House to send the bill to the concerned parliamentary standing committee for further scrutiny of the bill.