BSF or Coast Guard: Agency soon for unmanned stretch on Gujarat coast

On its part the Coast Guard claims that its large vessels cannot reach the area and hovercrafts get damaged there.

“With limited resources,the state police personnel have been deployed only on the land areas along the shore while the sea remains unguarded,” said S G Bhati,in-charge of state’s coastal security,DIG (Junagadh range).

Gujarat has on several occassions earlier raised the issue of vulnerability of this area to infiltration and other anti-social and terrorist activities. This year alone,the state had brought up the issue during the annual Chief Ministers’ conference in August and the Annual DGPs’ conference in September.

“The first categorical assurance from the Centre,however,came this Tuesday during a video conference with the cabinet secretary and the secretary of border management. They have assured to soon call a high-level meeting of senior BSF and Coast Guard officers and take a final decision on the matter,” said Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Balwant Singh.

He added: “The Centre wants to decide which vessels will be apt to operate in this region,so that they can be soon allotted to the agency which gets the responsibility to man this region.”

Security along the international land and sea border has been heightened post 26/11,but this shallow region near the Gulf of Kutch continues to remain almost unguarded. Several infiltration bids and unloading of narcotic substances have taken place through this region in the past. Recently,several kgs of charas packed as a foreign brand tomato sauce were found abandoned at the area during separate operations by the state police,Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

Expressing concern over the security of this region,the state has also asked for a coastal police station at Jakhau in Kutch under the phase two of the Centre’s Coastal Security Scheme (CSS). The proposal calls for 12 new coastal police stations to come up along the coastline,which is under consideration before the MHA. The state has also procured a five tonne boat for patrolling this region.