MHA asks coastal states to speed up fishermen's registration

New Delhi, Nov 30: The Home Ministry has asked the coastal states to speed up the process of registration of fishermen whose cooperation is indispensable to maritime security, a lesson learnt after the Mumbai terror attack.

For identification of the fishermen, biometric cards are given to them.
Since 2008, coastal and maritime security has been strengthened substantially by successful implementation of technical, organisational and procedural initiatives by all maritime security agencies but there are still many gaps in security architecture of the coastal security which need to addressed quickly to avert situation like 26/11.
Extended in more than 7,000 kilometers, India’s shoreline has a variety of security concerns that include illegal landing of arms and explosives at isolated spots on the coast, infiltration by anti-national elements, use of the sea and offshore islands for criminal activities, smuggling of consumer and intermediate goods through sea, an official said.
The government wants fishing communities to become the ‘eyes and ears’ of security architecture, as fishermen are in touch with their fellows even on the sea when they set out for fishing
Till now, out of total 19,90,521 fishermen, 19,74,098 had been enrolled and 18,60,630 cards had already been dispatched.
To verify the identity of the fishermen, the ICG, coastal Police, Fisheries department are provided with card readers. Registrar General of India gave 4,000 card readers to these agencies. The concerned state governments also supplied 2,636 card readers to the fisheries department.
Issue of ID cards to all fishermen with a single centralized database, registration of over 2 lakh fishing vessels operating off our coast and equipping fishing boats with suitable equipment, to facilitate vessel identification and tracking are major steps taken since 26/11.
The government is spreading awareness in these communities through coastal security campaigns, conducted by the Indian Navy and Coast Guard, in all coastal districts of the country time to time. UNI