Ocean Development is Need of the Hour-Shri Kapil Sibal

Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister for Science and Technology and Ocean Development has called for improvement of understanding and coordination of ocean resources, improving livelihood and timely warnings of coastal hazards. He said this while speaking on the Foundation Day and Silver Jubilee Year of the Department of Ocean Development here last night. Shri Sibal underlined the various success stories of Department of Ocean Development which included successful expeditions to Antarctica, recently commissioned desalination plant for drinking water at Kavaratti and the lead role played by the Department of Ocean Development in the post Tsunami scenario.

The Minister informed that Tsunami and Storm Surge Early Warning System would be put in place by 2007. Referring to the Common Minimum Programme of Government to strengthen the country's science and technology infrastructure, Shri Sibal strongly advocated the need for creation of department of earth sciences for appropriately integrating atmospheric, ocean and earth sciences to meet the challenge. This issue has already been discussed in the SAC-PM meeting, he said.

Lauding the role of Department of Ocean Development for providing one lakh litre drinking water per day at Kavaratti desalination plant in Lakshadweep, he said Government has been working with the objective to provide desalinated drinking water to 37 per cent of its population residing in coastal areas.

The Minister also informed the gathering that action has been initiated for establishing the third station in Antarctica with world-class facilities.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Guest, Shri Somnath Chatterjee, Speaker, Lok Sabha, said that ocean science and technology has an important role to play in realizing India's vision to become a developed nation by 2020. Calling the desalination plant at Kavaratti a good beginning, Shri Chatterjee said, "even after nearly six decades of freedom, we are not able to offer safe drinking water to a substantial section of population", which emphasizes the necessity of taking effective and speedy action in this region. He further said that our objective should be to effectively transform the country's vast ocean resources as a means for the sustainable development of the country.

Dr. Shakeel Ahmed, Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology, while speaking on the occasion, assured that his department would provide all support to the programmes of ocean development, especially related to the field of information technology. Dr. Ahmed also applauded the achievements of ocean development in the last two and half decades.

The Chief Guest, Shri Somnath Chatterjee gave away the certificates of merit to the five distinguished scientists in the field of oceanography. They are Shri Srinivas Kumar Tummala, Dr. Dhananjai K. Pandey, Shri Mihir Kumar Dash, Shri P. Muthuvel and Shri S. Ramasundaram.

Dr. Shakeel Ahmed released the special first day cover to commemorate the silver jubilee year of Department of Ocean Development. Shri Kapil Sibal released the book 'Oceanology' edited by Dr. Harsh K. Gupta on this occasion.

Source : Ministry of Science & Technology
Date :July 28, 2005