Navy, Coast Guard yet to plug gaps

The crucial apex Maritime Security Advisory Board, with a maritime security advisor as its chief, is nowhere on the horizon.

After the grisly 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, the government made tall claims about 'fast-track' measures to revamp the entire coastal security architecture. But the measures have been anything but fast, with political apathy, bureaucratic hurdles, procurement delays and petty turf-battles ensuring that India's 7,516km coastline as well as island territories still have gaping holes.

This was pretty much evident on Thursday when defence minister A K Antony held a high-level meeting, attended by NSA M K Narayanan, cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar and Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma, among others, to undertake stock-taking a year after 26/11.

Antony, in fact, told the 90-minute meeting that all agencies concerned should promptly take "follow-up measures" to implement all the government-approved projects in "a time-bound manner". Navy and Coast Guard, on their part, were asked to take "a fresh look" at the "gaps in security" and come up with a plan to "address any deficiencies". ''Mumbai-type attacks will not be tolerated at any cost,'' said Antony.

Though enhanced patrolling and joint operational exercises are being held by different agencies like Navy, Coast Guard, coastal police and customs, and intelligence-sharing has improved, it will take a lot more to walk the talk.