26/11 fallout: Maharashtra to enforce registration of private yachts

The Home department of Maharashtra will soon submit a report to suggest ways to account for the unregistered yachts of rich and famous of Mumbai and prevent their misuse.

Additional chief secretary (ACS) in Home department has been asked to submit the report to the cabinet in two to three weeks.  Subsequently state government will take measures to ensure these yachts are registered with some authority and men working on them are regularly scanned, said Maharashtra's home minister Jayant Patil.

Many yachts, belonging to the rich and famous people of Mumbai are neither registered with director general of shipping (DGS) nor with the state maritime board.

After 26/11 terror attacks, intelligence agencies told both the central and state governments to ensure that these private yachts are registered either with DGS or state maritime boards. Both the authorities are refusing to register the boats now sighting technical reasons.

Patil said, “we have also written a letter to central government requesting them to take urgent steps to prepare common protocol across all the coastal states for fishermen and fishing boats so that boats and men going in to the sea and returning to ports can be easily identified and if some boat or fisherman goes missing or some other person returns to shore instead of the person who has gone in the sea that can be detected.”

“However till the time central government talks with all the states and prepares some common protocol, we are speaking with Gujarat government to create common protocol at least between these two states as Maharashtra and Gujarat sea coasts are nearest from our neighbour”, he added.