Mr. Chairman, Sir, this is a very important Bill. I understand that
this Bill has been introduced on the basis of the Hong Kong Convention. The
title of the Bill is, ‘The Recycling of Ships Bill, 2019’, which is misleading.
The entire ship industry is known as the ship-breaking industry. I would
request the hon. Minister to mention how much of recycling has been done over
the last few years. India has deposited the Instrument of Accession to
the Hong Kong Convention with the IMO Secretary-General as recently as 28th
November, 2019. Why should the Parliament rush through it without any adequate
deliberations? Why should the Parliament go into a Bill which has a huge
importance, which has a huge environmental aspect, which also affects the aquatic
life, employment, safety aspects and labour aspects as well? So, the Bill has140 been already presented in haste and the
reasons are unknown. Sir, the Hong Kong Convention is stated to be the160 reason of the enactment of the Recycling
of Ships Bill, 2019, which has not even come into effect. The Hon Kong
Convention will come into force only after two years, after 15 States
representing 40 per cent of the world merchant shipping by gross tonnage and 3
per cent of recycling tonnage for the previous ten years, have either signed it
without reservation or have deposited instruments of ratification, acceptance,
approval or accession with the Secretary-General. Sir, when this is discussed,
we should also understand the date of India’s joining the Convention, the
number of States required to bring this Convention into force, and further
tonnage and recycling volumes needed for the Convention to come into force. So,
the280 Hong Kong Convention is
yet to come into force. Only after it comes into force after two years and the
particular tonnage is accepted, this Bill will be a valid Bill.
Sir, the top five ship recycling countries in the world320 accounting for more than 98 per cent of
the ship recycling by gross tonnage are Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan and Turkey.
Out of these, only two countries, India and Turkey, have now become parties to
the Hong Kong Convention. China, Bangladesh and Pakistan have not yet been
parties to this Convention. Even the Hong Kong Convention has been subjected to
severe criticism. One of the major criticisms of the Hong Kong Convention is
that the shipping industry upholds the Hong Kong Convention as the only
solution for ship-breaking conditions globally. The Hong Kong Convention has
been strongly criticised for420
not providing standards that will ensure safety and environmentally sound ship
recycling. Many NGOs including the organisation like ‘Greenpeace’ have already
raised the concern regarding the environmental impact of the Hong Kong
Convention. The Supreme Court of India has raised concerns and many a time, it
has referred to Basel Convention as the model. There is a huge difference
between the480 Basel
Convention and the Hong Kong Convention. I believe that the Government
should take adequate steps in understanding the basic differences and deciding
which Convention is exactly suitable for a country like India. We all know
that the hon. Minister comes from the State of Gujarat. Alang is one of the
biggest ship-breaking industries in the entire country. Ship-breaking industries
are considered to be the hell on earth. The safety standards and the problems
faced by the labourers are560
something which cannot be described in this Parliament because it has a
huge impact on their day-to-day life. There are health hazards. Chemicals are
brought in by ships. There are certain safety aspects which have to be
monitored and it has also been mentioned in the Convention as well. The
environmental aspect is something which we have to very carefully look at. The
marine aquatic life is going to be affected badly when the industry takes its
role in the640 Hong Kong
Convention.
When we talk about air pollution, we all suffer from it, especially in a
city like Delhi. We all are victims of air pollution. We all must have seen the
Discovery Channel or the National Geographic Channel where we can see more
colours of life than on land or by any artists or in any designs that700 we see, but the major component of a
colourful aquatic life and the immense number of aquatic creatures, which we
have only seen on the screen, are disturbed, destroyed and their eco-system
has been damaged in a very different manner. We have a huge coastal line, and
the fishermen’s community of our country, especially in Kerala, Gujarat and
Tamil Nadu, is going to have a huge setback when this Bill gets passed. As
regards the environmental impact, as I said, we know that the
climatic condition has been changing globally and with the increasing heat in
the oceans the amount800 of
fish catch is becoming less and the amount of salt content in the oceans is
also rising, which is very alarming, and cautious steps need to
be taken by the fishing industry. I would have been eager to see840 the hon. Minister of Fishing also become
a part of this discussion because it is the other side of the
coin, that is, the day-to-day livelihood of the fishermen’s community that
is going to be the worst-affected. ‘Har Ghar Jal’ is a very important
project of the Government where drinking water should reach every
household by 2024. Where is the water source for it? I had asked the hon.
Minister about the water source for it, and oceans are a huge source where
desalination plants can be used, but those water sources are going to be highly
polluted by this industry. The Bill is also relevant for the ship
breaking, which is now carried by the ship repairing unit of960 the Steel Industries Limited, Kerala.
Ships are broken down safely by beaching in Alang in the ship-breaking yards of
Gujarat, 980 but in Kannur,
ships are broken down while they are still in water. So, there are States which
are not following many of the standards given by these industries, but they
are still prevailing.
I agree on the employment aspect of the industry where thousands of
youngsters of this country get jobs, but environment is something that
we have to very closely look upon. Breaking ships in inland water wreaks
havoc in the eco-system and affects fishermen.
The Bill in the present form does not prohibit the hazardous ship
being broken with beaching and dismantling in water as well. This is a very
important aspect. I would like to have the Government’s attention on
this issue. Has the Government taken note of the contradiction between the
Basel Convention and the Hong Kong Convention? There are a number of cases in1120 the Supreme Court, in which the
Basel Convention has been referred to. It also finds a mention in the Hazardous
Wastes (Management, Handling and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2008. Has the
Government taken note of the various criticisms of the Hong Kong Convention
raised by the United Nations Human Rights Council? Has the Government taken
note of the criticism that the Hong Kong Convention gives an unfair advantage
to the ship owners as well? Has the Government taken note of the fact that none
of the European nations support it and are not part of the Hong Kong
Convention, and have adopted their own ship recycling regulation Act of 2013?
Why is India or some of the third-world countries or the developing countries
becoming a part of this industry? Employment is not the only factor here, but
many of the developed1260
countries do not want these hazardous chemicals to impact the environment in
their countries.
That is the reason why we1280 have become a victim of this industry.
A substantial number of ships for breaking arrive from Europe. Has the
Government taken note of the impact on a national level? It is the
ship-building lobby which would stand to benefit out of this Bill in its
present form being enacted into a statute, that too at this point of time when
the international law on this subject is in a state of flux. The
Government seems to be hand in glove with them so that the
existing environmental norms regarding the handling of hazardous waste, as
affirmed by the hon. Supreme Court’s judgement, is flouted with impunity
under the garb of a new enactment. This is a serious concern raised by1400 the people involved in the industry. Thousands
of persons employed in the ship-breaking industry will be detrimentally
affected as working1440
conditions will continue to remain deplorable. Due to the hasty step
taken by the Government, the ship-recycling industry in India will be
detrimentally affected in the long run as major players like China,
Bangladesh and Pakistan are still watching on the sidelines without joining the
Hong Kong Convention, and have not evolved a national law in line with the
Convention. This is so because of a major lacuna in the Convention that
facilitates party flags to be reflagged as non-party flags and to be sent to a
ship-recycling facility in a non-party recycling State. Does the Government
realise that Pakistan, China and Bangladesh may stand to benefit at the cost of
Indian ship-recycling industry? These are my major concerns about this Bill. As
a Parliamentarian, I am of the opinion that this Bill is
unwanted, untimely and unethical. So, I would urge the Government to
withdraw the Bill. 1575
