The customs department is officially supposed to check all overseas vessels when they enter Indian territory. However, Bangladeshi fishing trawlers are only noticed when they reach Namkhana.
The 2008 terror attack on Mumbai seems to have not taught coast guards a lesson or two about the vulnerability of coastlines. Every day hundreds of unchecked Bangladeshi fishing trawlers have been violating the coastal borders of Bay of Bengal.
The customs department is officially supposed to check all overseas vessels when they enter Indian coastal territory. However, Bangladeshi fishing trawlers are only noticed when they reach Namkhana, 150 km inside the Indian coastal territory. This laxity on the part of coast guards can give Bangladeshis an opportunity to unload arms and ammunitions on any unguarded island they may encounter enroute the coastal border.
A senior customs official said that the lapse on their part was due to the lack of infrastructure in the region. “Besides, we are extremely short-staffed. Our staff strength is not adequate to check even the cargo ships let alone the hundreds of fishing trawlers that come in every day,” the customs official said.
“However, our main concern is the cargo ships coming in from Bangladesh, which go to Namkhana to unload the cargo there,” he said.
The customs department has sought the assistance of the Border Security Force (BSF) to check the ships. “The problem is that customs comes under the finance ministry, whereas BSF comes under the home ministry. Unless there is coordination at the ministerial-level, the customs-BSF coordination of command will never materialise. In all such joint exercises, the first thing that needs to be fixed is the command structure and authority,” he said.
The West Bengal government will now intervene and get the two departments under the two Union ministries to arrive at a settlement. Besides holding meetings with the officials concerned, it will also discuss the issue with home minister P Chidambaram and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.
The state government will officially write to the home ministry, which will then take up the matter with the finance ministry and settle the issue, state home secretary S Ghosh said, adding that, the state government will also increase the number of coastal police stations in the region.
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