Economist Bhalchandra Mungekar has called for immediate amendment to the Maharashtra Animal and Fisheries Science University (MAFSU) Act, and the formation of a university in fisheries and ocean sciences, based on a report his committee had prepared in 2012.

Mr. Mungekar’s demand comes in the backdrop of five students petitioning the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court to devalue the Bachelor’s in Fisheries Science, Masters in Fisheries Science and doctorate degrees that Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth (DBSKKV) in Dapoli has issued to about 1,300 students. The students have cited Section 9 of the MAFSU Act, 1998.

“Section 9 states that the degrees of the College of Fisheries, Ratnagiri, will be given by MAFSU, which is headquartered in Nagpur. However, our say is that if MAFSU were to give the degree, then they should not have affiliated the fisheries college to DBSKKV in the first place. Now the career of thousands of students is at stake,” Mr. Mungekar said last week.

According to Dr. Shekhar Kovale, former dean, fisheries, DSBKKV, the Maharashtra Animal and Fisheries Science University was established in 1998 through the MAFSU Act, 1998. While the provisions of the Act were enacted by a notification dated November 17, 2000, the College of Fisheries, Ratnagiri, eight other research stations and four training centres were retained by the agricultural universities with another notification issued on the same day.

“To retain these institutes with agriculture universities in general and fisheries subject in particular, due care to amend MAFSU Act, 1998, was not taken in November 2000 by the State Department of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries. Because of this, DBSKKV awarded the degrees of Fisheries Science with permission of the Governor of Maharashtra, who is also the chancellor of universities in the State,” Mr. Mungekar said.

He said the fisheries college in Nagpur should be affiliated to the DBSKKV and that the government must accept the report of a study group that was formed in 2008 for a separate university on fisheries.

“The committee that I had chaired had submitted the report in 2012 for the establishment of the Maharashtra University of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences in Konkan, as the region is blessed with a 720-km-long coast, and fisheries can be best studied in Konkan only. Studying ocean sciences is important too as we do not have any scientific study of cyclonic or oceanic activities in the sea,” he said.

While he has asked the government to amend Section 9 of the MAFSU Act, he has also said he will meet Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to raise this issue.