New Delhi: In a damning revelation, a top Ministry of Defence (MoD) official has been quoted in a Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Report on the ‘Role and Functioning of the Coast Guard’ as saying that a 26/11-type attack can be repeated by terrorists since boats can still come in undetected despite increased monitoring by the coastal security mechanism.
Meanwhile, another report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Defence on Thursday reportedly criticised the Defence Ministry for “milking existing resources” to raise a mountain strike corps aimed at countering China.
So far as the PAC report on the Coast Guard is concerned, the top MoD official was quoted in the report as saying, “Now we have these two lakh boats; and just about anybody can go and come as and when he pleases. I have no system of monitoring it although the fishermen’s Identity Cards are being issued.... The boats have no identification method. For example, what is the origin of that boat and so on? Now, it is really beyond the human capacity of any border guarding force to look at every boat every day and find out whether there is a risk or there is no risk... When we receive a threat or a credible information, we would immediately increase our patrolling in the waters... But that itself may not prove to be always enough. Therefore, if you ask me a very specific question that ‘Can 26/11 be repeated? Can a boat get in without being detected?’ Within the confines of this room, Sir, my answer would still be yes. We apprehend that. We have to improve. We have to improve much more. Therefore, what I feel is that other than the assets, there is a whole lot of work, which needs to be done by the Coast Guard to achieve that level.”
