March 10, 2025
Lok Sabha MP Saugata Roy’s speech on The Bills of Lading Bill, 2024
Hon. Chairperson, Sir, I rise to speak on the Bills of Lading Bill 2024. I don’t know why it has not been corrected to 2025. I have a basic objection to the Bill. The Minister will remember that when it was introduced in the House, I had objected to the introduction of Bill. I said it was superfluous; it was not necessary. It is stated in the Statement of Objects and Reasons that though the substantive aspects of the said Act continue to remain relevant, being a pre-independence statute, it is imperative that the provisions of the said Act are revisited without changing the substance or spirit of the Act so as to bring it in line with modern legislation. The Minister has said that it is the same as the previous legislation. This is superfluous. I think the Ministry has no work, so they bring legislations unnecessarily. Before I speak on the Bill, I have a small request to the hon. Minister. He is from Dibrugarh which is on the banks of the Brahmaputra mighty river. He is also from the land of `lahe lahe’, which is in slow pace. Now my request is that you please give your Minister of State, Shri Shantanu Thakur, some chance to speak in Parliament. He is sitting every day, taking notes, but he is not getting a chance to speak. He is from West Bengal and he deserves a chance in your Ministry. Why do you not give him a chance to speak in Parliament? Sir,now we have to consider the shipping Bill. We have to consider the shipping industry. The shipping industry has undergone terrific changes in the last 50 years. Now, there are no more small ships. Ships are all container ships, and they are 2 lakh or 3 lakh tonnes. The bigger ships are oil tankers which bring petroleum from one country to the others. Unfortunately, though we have a big coastline, 34,000 miles of coastline which is more than China,but our coast is not indented, that is, there is not enough inlands. As a result of which, we do not have big container ships coming to our coast. Sir, you are from Chennai. You know that in Madras port, you have to have breakwater for maintaining the port. We need deep water ports. Kochi is a deep water port, so is Vizag. Earlier, the Government built new ports. In Mumbai, they built the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust. Paradip was built by the Government. Now all the new ports are going to one group of businessmen called Adani. New port in Vizhinjam in Kerala belongs to Adani. The new port in Dhamra in Odisha belongs to Adani, and the biggest port in the private sector is Mundra Port. The Mundra Port has the repute of maximum drug seizures. That also belongs to Adani. So, we have a change in the total perspective of the shipping industry, which I want to point out. Now why is the Minister bothering about these small changes in the Bill? I spoke during the introduction. I said it is not necessary. One bad point is that they are making legislation and taking all the power in the Government’s hand. They have said, the Government has repealed the Indian Bills of Lading Act, 1856 without introducing any significant improvements in maritime trade, except for centralizing power under the Ministry of Port and Shipping. The Bill says that the Central Government may give such directions, as it may deem necessary, for carrying out all or any of the provisions of this Act. That means the Central Government has overriding power. It is not democratic. The States should have been given some power in the matter of ports. The shipping industry could have some power. There could have been a National Shipping Council. That has not been done. We must see how to develop our ports. We must build deep-water sea ports. We must have big container ships; otherwise, we cannot compete with China. People here speak of competing with China. We are not even five trillion dollars in terms of GDP. China is 19 trillion dollars, and USA is 32 trillion dollars in terms of their GDP. Where are we? How do we catch up with China? China has a smaller coastline than us, but their Port of Shanghai has a huge capacity. We must remember that we must hasten to catch up with these countries. The Government having more power over the ports is not important. We must encourage the shipping industry. We must encourage the ship building industry. We must encourage the ship breaking industry. Unfortunately, we are falling behind in all these things. The Minister is a good man, but he needs dynamism and a 10-year roadmap and a 50-year road perspective as to how to develop the shipping industry which has fallen behind small countries. See the Dutch; they have the Rotterdam Port. It is equivalent to 4-5 ports of ours. The small countries have big ports. We have not built big ports. I will request the Minister to take up the matter of big ports. I have nothing to say against the Bill. But I will tell you that let the Minister come to the Parliament with a more positive legislation, not this minor tinkering legislation. This tinkering legislation can be done in the Atal Tinkering Laboratory. Thank you, Sir.
