New law to control fish import approved

Senior Correspondent: The Cabinet has approved the draft of the Fisheries Quarantine Act, 2018 to control import of fishes to prevent intrusion of any harmful agents.

The approval was given in the weekly meeting of the cabinet held at Prime Minister’s Office on Monday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

 

Cabinet Secretary Md. Shafiul Alam briefed reporters after the meeting.

Briefing the reporters at Bangladesh Secretariat, Shafiul Alam said under the law, a Fishes Quarantine Authority would be put in place to monitor the import of any fish or aquaculture species by water, road, air and other routes.

The Department of Fisheries would act as the quarantine authority, he said adding that for violation of the act, an individual or personnel of a company will face minimum one-year and maximum seven-year imprisonment or fine of Taka five lakh or both.

Police, Rab, Coast Guard, BGB, port authority and civil aviation authorities, Bangladesh Railway, shipping agencies and all concerned organizations will have the authority to prevent any activity detrimental to the law and help the fisheries officials to execute the law.

The offence under the law would be non-cognizable and bail-able and dealt under the jurisdiction of the metropolitan magistrate, judicial magistrate and executive magistrate. However, no court will accept any case without written complaint of the quarantine officer, the cabinet secretary said.


risingbd/Dhaka/July 2, 2018/Noimuddin/AI