NEW DELHI: Saturday will mark the third anniversary of the 26/11 terror attacks
in Mumbai, which exposed gaping holes in the country's coastal security
architecture, but the government continues to drag its feet in
appointing a new Coast Guard chief.
That the crucial maritime security force has been headless for the last 25 days is yet another indicator of the ad-hoc manner in which measures to strengthen coastal security have been taken since the dastardly act.
Some part of the delay is being attributed to an ongoing tussle among the top brass in the Navy that came to the fore even during the appointment of a new chief of integrated defence staff a few months ago.
Coast Guard wants one of its own inspector general-rank officers to be promoted as the new DG after years of being led by ``big brother'', the Navy, since its inception. ``The turf war has become even more acute after 26/11,'' said an official.
The buzz, however, is that vice-admiral M P Muralidharan, chief of personnel at Navy HQ, is the topmost contender since he is also ``officiating'' as the Coast Guard chief. The last incumbent vice-admiral Anil Chopra took over as the Eastern Naval Command chief on October 31.
The youngest and smallest of the four armed forces under MoD, Coast Guard has long suffered from neglect. It took 26/11 for the government to be jolted out of its slumber, which then promptly announced a slew of measures to revamp the country's coastal security architecture.
But, as earlier reported by TOI, the progress has been quite tardy. Coast Guard, for instance, is making do with only 106 ``surface units'', including just six advanced and 11 other offshore patrol vessels, and 51 ``air units'' comprising 28 Dornier surveillance aircraft, 19 Chetak and four Dhruv helicopters.
Moreover, it has just 1,714 officers, 9,196 enrolled personnel and 1,553 civilians. This when at least triple those numbers are required to effectively protect India's vast 5,422-km coastline, 1,197 islands and 2.01 million sq km of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
India's EEZ will expand by another million sq km after the proposed delimitation of the Continental Shelf, which will then make it almost equal to the country's actual landmass.
MoD officials say plans are afoot to ensure Coast Guard can increase its force-levels to around 200 ships and 100 aircraft by 2018 to effectively tackle its operational tasks, which includes piracy and the terror threat emanating from sea.
In the short-term, three more Coast Guard stations will come up at Dahanu, Androth and Krishnapatnam to add to the existing 31, apart from a new regional HQ (north-east) and a station at Kolkata. ``Since 2009, an additional 4,300 posts have been sanctioned to strengthen the Coast Guard. The force will also get 12 more Dorniers soon,'' said an official.
That the crucial maritime security force has been headless for the last 25 days is yet another indicator of the ad-hoc manner in which measures to strengthen coastal security have been taken since the dastardly act.
Some part of the delay is being attributed to an ongoing tussle among the top brass in the Navy that came to the fore even during the appointment of a new chief of integrated defence staff a few months ago.
Coast Guard wants one of its own inspector general-rank officers to be promoted as the new DG after years of being led by ``big brother'', the Navy, since its inception. ``The turf war has become even more acute after 26/11,'' said an official.
The buzz, however, is that vice-admiral M P Muralidharan, chief of personnel at Navy HQ, is the topmost contender since he is also ``officiating'' as the Coast Guard chief. The last incumbent vice-admiral Anil Chopra took over as the Eastern Naval Command chief on October 31.
The youngest and smallest of the four armed forces under MoD, Coast Guard has long suffered from neglect. It took 26/11 for the government to be jolted out of its slumber, which then promptly announced a slew of measures to revamp the country's coastal security architecture.
But, as earlier reported by TOI, the progress has been quite tardy. Coast Guard, for instance, is making do with only 106 ``surface units'', including just six advanced and 11 other offshore patrol vessels, and 51 ``air units'' comprising 28 Dornier surveillance aircraft, 19 Chetak and four Dhruv helicopters.
Moreover, it has just 1,714 officers, 9,196 enrolled personnel and 1,553 civilians. This when at least triple those numbers are required to effectively protect India's vast 5,422-km coastline, 1,197 islands and 2.01 million sq km of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
India's EEZ will expand by another million sq km after the proposed delimitation of the Continental Shelf, which will then make it almost equal to the country's actual landmass.
MoD officials say plans are afoot to ensure Coast Guard can increase its force-levels to around 200 ships and 100 aircraft by 2018 to effectively tackle its operational tasks, which includes piracy and the terror threat emanating from sea.
In the short-term, three more Coast Guard stations will come up at Dahanu, Androth and Krishnapatnam to add to the existing 31, apart from a new regional HQ (north-east) and a station at Kolkata. ``Since 2009, an additional 4,300 posts have been sanctioned to strengthen the Coast Guard. The force will also get 12 more Dorniers soon,'' said an official.
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