Focus on trawlers

Cuttack, Nov. 8: Six months after the Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and Orissa police conducted a joint drive to gauge threat perceptions along Orissa coastline, a PIL was filed on Tuesday in the high court raising the issue of illegal operations conducted by fishing vessels.

The coastal security drive was conducted to instil a sense of preparedness among local people and to make them understand the necessity of keeping a track of unusual movements along the 480km-long coastline.

Twenty fishing villages of Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapada, Bhadrak, Balasore and Ganjam were covered under the week-long drive that included interactions with fishermen, boat operators and villagers. Their co-operation was sought in dealing with external forces that intended to destabilise the country. Pamphlets containing telephone numbers of nearest local police, coast guard centre and Indian Navy centres were distributed among villagers.

Periodic seizures of deep sea trawlers off the coast of Paradip and Dhamra had brought the matter of coastal threats into focus. Fishing vessels from Bangladesh, Thailand and Myammar were often detected trespassing into Indian waters and violating Orissa Marine Fisheries Regulation Act.

Nishikant Mishra, a member of Orissa High Court Bar filed the petition seeking to raise a PIL on the national threat due to illegal fishing operations.

The government had granted licences to 630 fishing boats, of which 538 boats reportedly operate along the Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara coastlines.

“There is little information regarding owners of these boats,” stated the petition and sought a proper check.

“Illegal fishing boats operate along the coast without any security checks. It is very easy for anti-nationals to enter the Indian coast,” the petitioner claimed pointing out to the Mumbai attacks.