Poor equipment, lack of funds affect joint sea patrol

BHUJ, SEPT 12: It was started in the wake of Mumbai blasts to check smuggling of arms and explosives via the Kutch coast. But, in six yea...

BHUJ, SEPT 12: It was started in the wake of Mumbai blasts to check smuggling of arms and explosives via the Kutch coast. But, in six years, the joint sea patrolling JSP by the navy, customs and the state police has not made a single seizure, nor arrested a single smuggler or Pakistani agent.

The JSP force, which is stationed at the fishing port of Jakhau, is supposed to keep a watch on a 300 km coastline from Koteshwar to Kandla. But it has a combined strength of less than a score, all of junior ranks. Except the men from the Navy, their weapons are no match to the firepower of the smugglers. And their nine boats are slow and obsolete.

Worse, they do not get fuel regularly. On Tuesday, the JSP party from Jakhau could not go out on its daily patrol for want of diesel. 8220;For last two days, we have not received diesel,8221; a member of the patrol told The Indian Express.

Sources in the JSP said the slow boats were their biggest handicap. There had been instances when they tried to interceptsmugglers, or men of the Pakistan marine security in Indian waters, but 8220;they just sped away, waving at us8221;.

The JSP is funded by the Centre, and run by the state government. But neither seems interested in strengthening it, although the shortcomings have been regularly pointed out at the monthly meetings of the district co-ordination committee on security, sources said.

District Superintendent of Police A K Singh, who admitted that JSP boats were of poor quality, said he was trying to acquire a fast boat 8220;within our budget8221;. He said that although the Navy and the Coast Guard did not have bases on the Kutch coast, they were keeping a watch over all vulnerable points.

Sources, however, said that just one fast boat would not be sufficient for the JSP. But if the Navy and the Coast Guard were actually keeping a watch over the entire coastline, then why have the JSP? The fact was that enemy activity in the area had increased after the Air Force shot down a Pakistani plane in the creek area recently andconstant vigilance was necessary.

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There were also indications that smugglers had become active in the area between Jakhau and Chhachi. In June, ISI agent Sultan Shah and five Pakistanis were caught with RDX. During interrogation, they disclosed that they had brought arms and explosives in February too, left the consignment in Harami Nalah area, and gone back to Pakistan via the coast.

In November, an abandoned Pakistani boat was found by the villagers of Chhachi. They also told the police that they had seen six strangers in the area, but none of them could be found. The sources pointed out that the sea was more vulnerable than the creeks because it 8220;always has enough draft for using craft8221;.