Ban on import of fish may be extended: Parrikar
Panaji, July 23 : Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday said the government is willing to extend the 15-day ban on import of fish "to remove fear and confusion" among people, while urging legislators to stop politicising the issue.
Citing laboratory tests, he also ruled out the use of formalin by traders to preserve fish in the state. More than 116 samples drawn from various markets and different variety of fish since July 14, indicated that no added formaldehyde was used to preserve fish. The reports about its usage to preserve fish had triggered a drop in tourism in the coastal state, Parrikar said.
"The government is ready to consider extending this ban for a further period in the interest of the health of the Goans, if the prevailing circumstances remain the same", he said while replying to a calling attention motion moved by Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Nilesh Cabral in the ongoing monsoon session of the Goa legislative assembly.
The 15-day ban on import of fish from other states was imposed by the Chief Minister on July 18.
Quoting guidelines by the central government's Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), he said that while only additional application of formalin was considered an offence, many commonly consumed foods inherently contained the chemical as part of their natural metabolism.
"Formaldehyde is documented to be naturally present in many common food items, including fruits and vegetables (approximately 20 to 60 mg per kg in fruits and vegetables), meats (approximately 5-20 mg per kg), fish (approximately 5 to 140 mg per kg), crustacean (approximately 10 to 100 mg per kg) and mushrooms (approximately 60 mg in fresh to as high as 400 mg per kg in dried shitake mushrooms), etc," Parrikar told the Goa legislative assembly in a written reply.
"In most marine fishes, formaldehyde is a natural breakdown product of a chemical known as trimethylamine oxide (TMAO) that exists in their bodies. Once the fish is harvested, TMAO breaks down into formaldehyde and dimethylamine in equal parts during the post mortem. It can also accumulate in certain marine fish and crustacean during frozen storage," he added.
Urging the legislators to speak responsibly on the formalin controversy, Parrikar said the furore caused over alleged use of formalin had even resulted in a drop in the number of tourists visiting the state.
"Irresponsible statements have an impact on tourism. Tourists are refusing to eat fish now," Parrikar said, saying that legislators were making statements out of ignorance. Banning of fish imports will severely impact tourism, he also said.
"Because of our ignorance and political oneupmanship, we are destroying Goa's image," Parrikar said, while promising to set up a "robust mechanism" to check the use of formalin in fish before the temporary ban on import of fish from other states is lifted on August 3.
The BJP-led coalition government in the state has been on the backfoot ever since the controversy erupted, more so after two cabinet ministers, namely Town and Country Minister Vijai Sardesai and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, tried to downplay the use of formalin in fish, claiming it was within "permissible limits". The claim was disputed by several experts including marine scientists at the Goa-based National Institute of Oceanography.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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