Fishermen should be part of coastal security: Antony

Defence Minister A.K. Antony Wednesday called upon various agencies to work together to ensure a seamless and robust coastal security architecture and said that fishermen should be made an integral part of the planning process.

Antony, who reviewed the progress on steps taken to enhance coastal security, said the defence ministry had taken a number of steps during the last five years to make India's coastal security more robust and that the Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard had seen an unprecedented enhancement of their capabilities.

He said that installation of 46 Coastal Static Radars (36 in the mainland and 10 on islands) would help in identifying and monitoring maritime traffic.

He said that a seamless and integrated approach was essential for a strong coastal security and noted that fishermen were the "eyes and ears" for overall coastal security.

"They (fishermen) have to be made an integral part of all our security planning," he said.

A statement from the ministry said that monitoring and tracking of dhows could be done via automatic identification system.

The release said directions had also been given to all ISPS (internal ship and port facility security) compliant ports that information on the dhows should be given to the navy and Coast Guard for surveillance.

The meeting was attended by Navy chief Admiral D.K. Joshi and senior officials, including National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon and cabinet secretary Ajit Kumar Seth.