Home Minister to review coastal security in Mumbai

Mumbai: Home Minister Rajnath Singh will hold a meeting with top officials of nine coastal states and four Union Territories here on Friday to review coastal security, an official said on Wednesday.

Singh will be accompanied at the meet by Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju, senior officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Inter-State Council Secretariat, the Registrar General of India, defence, Indian Coast Guard, shipping, animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries besides state home ministers, chief secretaries and directors-general of police from these states.

The nine coastal states are Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal, and UTs are Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Lakshadweep.

The meet will discuss expeditious implementation of coastal security schemes, institutional set-up in the participating states and UTs to review coastal security, constitution of state maritime boards, security of non-major ports and single-point mooring, coastal mapping, and islands` security.

The issues to be deliberated upon also include distributing Biometric Identity Cards and Card Readers among the fisherfolk, colour coding of fishing and other boats, monitoring of fish landing points and crossing of International Maritime Boundary Line by the fishermen.

There will be presentations by the Coast Guard, coastal states and Union Territories highlighting the measures initiated by them for ensuring coastal security and their additional requirements to strengthen it.