Rajnath Singh okays plan for new coastal police

Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday accepted Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis’ suggestion to set up a Central Marine Police Force to protect the sea, coast, ports and other vital institutions.

Mr Singh, who was in Mumbai to review security for the nation’s 7,516-km coastline, reviewed suggestions and recommendations from bureaucrats and ministers of coastal states and UTs for the proposed Coastal Security Scheme (Phase-III).

Referring to the 26/11 Mumbai attack, Mr Singh said creating a stronger coastal policing system would help the Coast Guard, that protects coastal waters. The minister stressed the need to guard not only industrial and commercial establishments as well as strategic installations, but also the entire coastline.

Mr Singh said the coastline was made more secure with the setting up of static sensors and Automatic Identification System (AIS) receivers on the coast and radars operated by the Coast Guard at 45 locations. Mr Singh added that 38 more radars would be installed for gapless surveillance of the coastline. He also reacted positively to several suggestions made by Mr Fadanvis.

Mr Fadnavis suggested that marine policing was a specialised job and therefore a Central Marine Police Force was vitally necessary. “Mr Singh has reacted positively to the suggestions made by Mr Fadnavis and we have already located land in Gujarat for setting up a central maritime police academy that will specialise in training (for) marine policing,” said Union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi.

The CM also emphasised that along with the impetus on port-led development and initiatives like Sagarmala, all landing points and non-major ports should also be brought under tech-based e-surveillance.

Stressing the need for security measures for fishermen, Mr Fadnavis noted that under the universal service obligation, GSM service providers should be asked to provide services up to five nautical miles seawards from the coast. This would help track the movement of fishermen to the sea and back.

Mr Mehrishi confirmed that the MHA regarded the security of fishermen as its prime objective and was looking forward to building a comprehensive biometric database of fishermen for identification and tracking. “65 lakh fishermen have already received identity cards and 4,000 card readers have been deployed. We are also building a GPS location system for vessels that will be registered with the maritime police, but due to the extensive effort that this involves, it will take some time,” Mr Mehrishi said.