Fishermen to be Indian Coast Guard's eyes and ears

The Indian Coast Guard Wednesday launched an awareness campaign to sensitise the fishing community in West Bengal and Odisha to integrate them into the coastal security mechanism.

Aiming to use the community as additional "eyes and ears" for vigil across the coast line, West Bengal Governor M.K. Narayanan flagged off a coastal security awareness and medical campaign here to commemorate 37 glorious years of the Indian Coast Guard that celebrates its raising day Feb 1.

As part of the drive, a 32-member team of coast guard personnel, marine policemen and fishing community set off on 16 motorcycles from the Raj Bhavan precincts, a defence release said.

Inspector General K.C. Pande, Regional Commander, Coast Guard Region (North East)and other senior officials were present on the occasion.

The team will traverse through two different routes, including the Diamond Harbour and the Contai fishing zones.

One route will touch Petuaghat, Contai, Junput, Digha, Jaleswa before returning to Kolkata, while the second one will include Diamond Harbour, Kakdwip, Namkhana and Bakkhali.

During the campaign the teams will visit fishing hamlets enroute and undertake community interaction programme and medical check-up camps.

The campaign will terminate at the Coast Guard enclave, Maniktala, Saturday.

A similar awareness campaign is also being organised in Odisha Jan 23-26, the release said.