Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government has opposed the Draft Indian Ports Bill 2021, dealing with the management of minor ports, with Chief Minister M K Stalin writing to his counterparts of eight states including West Bengal and Kerala, calling for their objection to the proposal.
The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways has framed the draft bill to modify the current management model of minor ports and a meeting of the Maritime State Development Council (MSDC) has been called with the state Ministers on June 24 to discuss it, he said.
The communication issued on June 21 was released on Tuesday by the state government.
According to the existing Indian Ports Act, 1908, the powers to plan, develop, regulate and control minor ports vest with the state governments concerned but the latest draft “proposes to change this and transfer many of these powers to MSDC, which has so far been only an advisory body,” he said.
“Further to this, many powers currently exercised by…