The Ministry of Law and Justice on August 14, 2023, passed the Coastal Aquaculture Authority (Amendment) Bill 2023 to further amend the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act, 2005
This shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint; and different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act.
The following has been stated namely: -
• In the section 2 which states “definitions” in sub-section (1),— (i) for clause (a), the following clauses shall be substituted, namely:—
'(a) "aquaculture input" means any material used as an input in coastal aquaculture for the maintenance of the quality of water and soil and for the growth and better health of organisms reared, or other aquatic life available, therein and includes seed, fertilizer, feed, growth supplement, probiotic, environment remediator, and disinfectant;
(aa) "aqua mapping" means geospatial coastal area distribution maps depicting areas’ potential and suitable for coastal aquaculture;
(ab) "aqua zonation" means the zones of spatial planning for different species or methods of coastal aquaculture notified by a State Government or the Authority for sustainable coastal aquaculture;
(ac) "Authority" means the Coastal Aquaculture Authority established under sub-section (1) of section 4;
• In section 4 which states “Establishment of Authority and appointment of Chairperson and members”
(i) in clause (c), for the words "Department of Ocean Development", the words "Ministry of Earth Sciences" shall be substituted;
(ii) in clause (d), for the words "Ministry of Environment and Forests", the words "Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change" shall be substituted
(iii) in clause (e), for the words "Ministry of Agriculture", the words "Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare" shall be substituted.
(iv) in clause (f), for the words "Ministry of Commerce", the words "Ministry of Commerce and Industry" shall be substituted;
• in Section 7 which states “Meetings of Authority”, for sub-section (2), the following sub-section shall be substituted, namely:—
"(2) If the Chairperson is unable to attend a meeting of the Authority, any other member of the Authority nominated by the Chairperson in this behalf, and in the absence of both Chairperson and nominated member, any other member chosen by the members present from amongst themselves shall preside over the meeting.".
• After section 7 the following section shall be inserted, namely:—
"7A. Committees of Authority.
(1) Subject to any rules made in this behalf, the Authority may from time to time constitute such committees as may be necessary for the efficient discharge of its functions.
(2) Every committee shall consist of such number of persons and perform such functions and be subject to such terms and conditions as may be prescribed.".
[Notification No. 27 OF 2023]
