No salary for coastal security guards for 6 months: Official

Around 300 private guards deployed to secure Maharashtra's coastline post the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, have not received their salaries for the last six months, an official claimed today.

The official said 296 security guards were deployed at 91 sensitive locations along the coastline.

"These 296 private security guards, including 23 supervisors, were deployed by the state fisheries department at 91 locations in coastal districts including Mumbai, Mumbai Suburban, Palghar, Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg," the official said.

The security guards were appointed as per the recommendations made by the Coastal Security Committee formed under the then chief secretary.

"The committee suggested that of the 525 fish landing points along the 720 km-long coastline in the state, 91 points are sensitive, from where monitoring of the number of boats, their trips and fishermen on them is required to be done by these private guards," he said.

"As per the committee's recommendations, the department had deployed over 296 guards. However, they have not received the salaries from September 2017 to February 2018. A slash in the budgetary allocations by the government resulted in non-payment to guards for the last six months," the official said.

A security guard said they have approached the fisheries department, which has assured that it will look into the matter.

"Guards are doing their duty in three shifts without proper equipment like shoes, uniform, power battery," the guard said.