Making of a Maritime Governance Authority

In my earlier articles on this website, I have discussed the concept and need for a Maritime Governance Authority (MGA) in India. A broad outline on the span and scope of MGA is necessary to understand the importance of an MGA and the impact it would have for the sustenance of a sovereign India.

Maritime governance is about knowing and monitoring order and disorder at sea in a constant, timely, coordinated, responsive and responsible manner. It also calls for a proactive, participative and optimal response to search & rescue and disaster management situations of varying scales.

The prime objective of a MGA would not be to replace the role and functioning of the various stake holders but to bring to bear on them holistic maritime domain awareness and understanding. It’s equally important task would be to spread systemic processes on dealing with various regulatory, requirements both current and those in the future. Local, regional and International practices and United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea/International Maritime Organisation (UNCLOS/IMO) ratified agreements would form part of this.

Coordinating the activities of the various stakeholders and national readiness to deal with matters maritime both in peace and war would be its primary charter. India’s complete dependency on the sea being a given, it is imperative that sea lanes of communication are kept open 24X 7 both during peace and in war.

The Indian Ocean lifeline between West & East and India

The definitions of contiguous zone, territorial seas, Exclusive Economic Zone, the right of hot pursuit, free passage, piracy at sea, sea bed exploration, fishing rights/limits, and maritime boundaries would be properly interpreted, promulgated monitored and coordinated.

Review of the existing Acts and their updating is an onerous overdue task that would get the focused priority of the MGA. The list of such Acts below is only an illustrative sample:

The Passport (Entry into India Act) Act, 1920.
The Emigration Act, 1922.
The Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939.
The Merchant Shipping Act, 1958.
The Customs Act, 1962.
The Passport Act, 1967.
The Code of Criminal Procedures, 1973.
The Territorial Waters, Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone and other Maritime Zones Act, 1976.
The Maritime Zones of India (Regulation of Fishing by Foreign Vessels) Act, 1981 (MZI Act,1981)and The Maritime Zones of India (Regulation of Fishing by Foreign Vessels) Rules, 1982.
Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Maritime Navigation and Fixed Platforms on Continental Shelf Act, 2002.
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.

Matters Maritime are and should be a central subject. At the same time the role and interests of all coastal states are also paramount. This calls for well considered and long term agreed upon policies and ocean going practices across the span of security, commerce and centre-state coordination.

Creation of a robust Management Information System is the need of the hour for effective national governance. Information in time is the key. Utilizing it intelligently in responsive decision making is a necessity. This aspect becomes that much more crucial in maritime affairs considering the invisible nature of incidents at sea beyond the horizon.

CREATION OF MGA

The creation of MGA should be by an act of parliament and that would give it the needed permanency as well political consensus. The government of the day needs to make this happen. The Cabinet Committee on Security needs to be sensitized by the Indian Navy and Ministry of Defense. Their paper on national maritime commission needs to be institutionally acted upon.

The MGA would cater for Maritime Domain Awareness. The Indian Navy alongside the Coast Guard would be the lead agency in creating, setting up and monitoring this. Coastal surveillance would be integral to MDA. Peace time as well as war time actions and contingency planning would all be factored.

Merchant vessel reporting systems and Automated Identification of all commercial traffic would form part of the MDA. Shipping companies/stevedores/agents and port authorizes would be required to upgrade existing reporting chains.

Port management including compliance of various International and national requirements would be the charter of the concerned port and coastal authority. The aspects of International Ship and Port facility security code(ISPS), Container security initiative (CSI), internal security arrangements and disaster containment measures need to be reviewed, standardized and exercised annually to assess readiness. MGA would be the central authority to ensure this. Hinterland operations would fall under the local commercial/policing authority which would also be represented in the MGA organization at the state level

The Ministries of Defense, Shipping, Home, intelligence agencies would have suitable representation in the MGA both at the central as well regional/ state echelons. Existing systems only need tweaking up to cater for this. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) through the aegis of the National security Adviser(NSA) would be the apex body accountable for Maritime governance.

MARITIME GOVERNANCE AUTHORITY AND COASTAL STATE ACTIVITIES

The MGA would provide a unifying standard for coastal states. The coastal states would be very much integral to the MGA set up in that region. This would ensure:-

Formalised link ups with department of Fisheries to set up fishing areas, trawler/boats Automatic identification system (AIS) issue of biometric cards to fishermen, organizing local watch groups, storm warnings, exercise alerts and training.
Creation of networks linking all fishing villages, ports and jetties to Marine police stations and Navy/ Coast Guard Ops Centres.
Oversight of coastal surveillance infrastructure and integrating this with the National grid
Infusion of marine police with standardized equipment, training, joint exercises with all sea going entities.
Following standardized processes in handling merchant vessels, management aspects, cargo handling, customs, excise enforcement, harbor and waterway security, emergency and contingency planning and monitoring activities.
Training and exercises for various stake holders to assess states of readiness and preparedness.

MARITIME GOVERNANCE AND MINISTRY OF SHIPPING

All Indian ports need to be made ISPS compliant and be brought under the ambit of State Maritime Boards. There should be a single point agency for registration of all sea faring vessels. Positive identification of ownership should be mandated. AIS to be installed on all motorised craft

AVOIDABLE LACUNAE

The Indian Navy and Coast Guard are oriented towards Maritime security. Yet there are lacunae in current regulations which need to be corrected. Some examples of such weakness are:

The Marine Fisheries (Regulation and Management) Act, 2009 empowers Indian Coast Guard but not the Indian Navy. As a result, the Navy is hamstrung when investigating suspicious fishing vessels in the absence of authority
The Navy and Coast Guard’s officers are not vested powers under various laws like the Emigration Act, 1922, Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939, Passport (Entry into India Act) Act, 1920, Passport Act, 1967 etc.
ISPS Code. Neither the Navy nor the Coast Guard’s officers are empowered to act against violations of this Act
The Territorial Waters, Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone and other Maritime Zones Act, 1976 . The stipulation that “No prosecution shall be instituted against any person in respect of any offence under this act or the rules made therein without the prior sanction of the Central Government or such officer or authority as may be authorised by that Government by order in writing in this behalf” is outdated. This needs the proactive attention by of an active MGA
The Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Safety of maritime Navigation and Fixed Platforms on Continental Shelf Act, 2002 . The Coast Guard is empowered while the Navy, which is a security force has no jurisdiction.
The absence of any legislation for coordination of security enforcement has not even drawn the attention of the Central government due to the compartmentalized nature of the present arrangement wherein each stake holder has a distinct role with no overlap.
There is a perplexing anomaly between the Customs Act, 1962 which is applicable up-to 24 Nautical Miles, i.e. the contiguous zone of India and the Code of Criminal Procedures, 1973 which is applicable only up-to 12 Nautical Miles i.e. within the territorial waters of India.
The Offshore Areas Minerals (Development and Regulation) again empowers only the Coast guard
The above lacunae militate, against, maintenance and monitoring of good order at Sea . These acts should not be subject to narrow interpretation and dated practices. An authority like MGA would be able to give focused attention to imperatives of maritime governance.

REVIEW OF IMPERATIVES

The central government needs to carry out a didactic review of the existing maritime scenario and initiate setting up of the Maritime Governance Authority.

A beginning needs to be made in right earnest and at the earliest. It needs to be driven by empowered authority to be held accountable to ensure optimal, effective Maritime Governance in the years to come. India’s future hinges on this.

WITHIN OUR HORIZON

India and the Indian Ocean are integral to each other in spirit, ethos, and economics. India being astride and the Indian Ocean being central are both Geographic realities. The latter is the waterway connecting the east and west. The former is the spring board of a secular, non-aligned democracy destined to play a stabilizing role in the International arena.

The sea power of India in the broader sense of an all inclusive maritime management through awareness, appropriate response to emerging situations, maximizing commercial potential and security preparedness are the need of the hour and of tomorrow. Maritime Governance through a legislated and empowered is the answer for a sovereign India.

Admiral Venkat Bharatan is a retired Admiral of the Indian Navy. In the first part, the Admiral presented India’s maritime stakeholders and their unpreparedness to respond to any sea-borne calamity. In the second part, he discussed the dynamics of Maritime Governance, covering possible command and control structures and proposals for optimal functioning would be included, factoring the changes already being made.

This article was exclusively written for Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations. You can read more exclusive content here.

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