Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta on Saturday reviewed the coordination between various security particularly coastal security with broad range of issues relating to coastal security and how to operationalise them.

The meeting summoned by Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta was attended by senior officials of nine Coastal States & four Union Territories and representatives of ministries/departments/organisations concerned.

"Reviewing the progress of the Coastal Security Scheme, the home secretary emphasized the need for state governments/union territories to prioritise and focus on expeditious implementation of all components of the Coastal Security Scheme. The Home Secretary stressed that all the 73 Coastal Security Police Stations, 97 check posts and 58 outposts should become fully operational within the shortest possible time,' he said.

He also asked the states and UTs to be ready with adequate and trained manpower so that they can be fully and optimally utilised once "the delivery of 204 Interceptor Boats commences from March-April 2009. In this regard, it is likely that the delivery may commence even earlier and that the total time span for delivery of all boats would also be compressed. He emphasised the need to finalise the deployment norms and the Standard Operating Procedures also to ensure operational efficiency and effectiveness," Madhukar Gupta emphasised during his interaction with correspondents. 

Some states have sought sanction of additional police stations. The Home Secretary asked the representatives of the Coast Guard and State Governments to carry out a detailed vulnerability gap analysis to identify the requirements of additional police stations and their locations. In this context, he also suggested that some of the police stations could be co-located with minor ports along the coast and asked the state governments to carry out an exercise in this regard in a time-bound manner.

The meeting also considered various aspects relating to issuance of identity cards to all fishermen and other personnel and for registration of boats. State governments were asked to review their laws and regulations in this regard and also make available the details of the same so that so far as possible uniform norms and policies could be determined. The optimal use of technology for purposes of providing transponders and Global Positioning Systems on the registered boats/vehicles and for issue of digitized identity cards was also discussed. The need to enhance the capacity of security/surveillance agencies to undertake real-time exchange and use of  data/information relating to fishermen & boats specifically and coastal patrolling/surveillance generally was also discussed and appropriate strategies considered.