Coastal police station comes a cropper

KOCHI: The coastal police station at Fort Kochi came as a much-needed respite for the fishing community. But after more than a year of its installation the police station is inefficient in handling the cases within its limits. Though the crime rate within the the police station limits has gone up, the services of the coastal police are ineffective.Eight coastal police stations were set up as part of the efforts to enhance coastal security in the state. These police stations were given modern equipment to track security threats and vessels and speed boats to  patrol the coastal area. The coastal police have a jurisdiction of 12 nautical miles off the coast. “The coastal police is not aware of what exactly their duty is. Even the basic duties of patrolling the coastal waters and coastal roads rarely happen. Three coastal boats have been provided to the coastal police in Fort Kochi but no staff have been allocated to it. So three new spanking patrol boats purchased last year have been pushed away from prying eyes and is in the rusting stage. We get no assistance of them even when we are in critical circumstances while out in the sea.  All assistance we get is solely from the Coast Guard,” said V P Girish, said Boat Owners Association president V P Girish.The police station should have copies of registration of boats and photo passes. The police station, therefore, should play an important role in gathering intelligence from fishing cooperatives and societies on criminal activities in the coastal region, including smuggling and other related activities. Each coastal police station is supposed to set up check posts on roads with easy access to the coast. But nothing of this kind is functioning  here. The coastal police station is understaffed and the personnel there lack training.An officer of the coastal police station said they were facing some problems as the station was installed recently. “The police station was set up a year ago. There are some issues to be sorted out. But the patrolling and daily routine security check-ups are being carried out. Monitoring of the boats and their registration are taking place. The full functioning of the police station will take more time. We have three speed rafts in which we carry out the checking of the boats. We have arrested many people involved in criminal activities and strict measures were taken against smuggling activities,” the police officer said.