Kendrapara: Incidents of infiltration have been on the rise in the coastal pockets of the state, including Gahirmatha area of Kendrapara, putting the security of the state at risk.
In view of this threat, there is need for a Coastal India Reserve Battalion (CIRB) and taking serious note of this, the state government had proposed the Ministry of Home Affairs to approve setting up such a battalion for Odisha in 2017.
According to reports, the then state Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Asit Kumar Tripathy wrote to the Home Minister urging him to establish the CIRB and financial assistance to marine police stations that are looking after coastal security.
Meanwhile, four years have passed by since Tripathy sent the letter to the Home Ministry. The proposal for the CIRB has been shelved into cold store. There has been no positive response from the centre in this regard.
Many marine police stations have been plagued by infrastructure and staff crunch and are unable to maintain proper surveillance along the coast against the infiltrations.
According to Matrudatt Mohanty, a local resident, there are 480-km long coast of the state while 48 km of it is in Kendrapara. Marine police stations have been set up at Talachua, Tantiapal and Jambu, but these police stations are affected by shortage of staff and infrastructure.
As these police stations do not have adequate number of boats and staff, patrolling the coast has been affected, he added. Amid these shortcomings, intrusion through sea route has been increasing in this coastal district.
During the Pakistan-Bangladesh war, 1,237 refugees were rehabilitated in Kendrapara. Currently, there are over 76,000 Bangladeshis in the district. Most of them are infiltrators and have set their sight on Bhitarkanika national park. With the deployment of CIRB, cases of infiltration can be curbed to some extent, Mohanty noted.
According to Amarbar Biswal, a local intellectual, in 2001 a transmission centre was set up at Banipal in Bhitarkanika. During a police investigation, it was found that defence-related data about the APJ Abdul Kalam Island (Erstwhile Wheeler Island) were being leaked abroad through the transmission centre.
In 2002, Forest officials seized a trawler for illegal intrusion into Rajnagar area. Some of the crew members had shot a forester dead. In 2019, there was exchange of fire between the Coast guards and fishermen who were fishing illegally in the Gahirmatha area.
Police investigations at different times in the past revealed gun smuggling, fake currency note and drug smuggling in the coastal area of the district. Social activist Pratap Chandra Padhi said that Coast Guards had recently detained 20 Bangladeshis at Paradip police station.
Over the years, scores of Bangladeshis have settled inside the national park. Most of them are involved in wildlife poaching, smuggling of drugs and prawn farming. They are making big buck from such illegal activities, thus posing a serious threat to the state’s security as well as the biodiversity of the Bhitarkanika, Padhi added.
As for coastal security, ASP Harish Kumar Pandey said that there is need for CIRB. “After establishment of marine police stations, infiltrations have been curbed to some extent. Efforts are on to strengthen the infrastructure of the marine police stations,” he added.
PNN
