Alappuzha: The coastal security in Alappuzha remains vulnerable even after many fatal incidents. The understaffed Coastal Police Station at Thottappally offers little help.
Only 23 staff members are now available for deployment in place of allotted 43 here. Officials say it remained so for the last six months.
“Despite requests, no new staff deployment happened here. We need fully equipped guards,” they told DC.
The coastal police station was started with 43 guards including a circle inspector, three sub-inspectors and three additional sub-inspectors two years back. The fishing community criticises the authorities for depending on the Navy in emergencies.
Joy C. Kambakkaran, of All India Matsya Thozhilali Federation (AITUC), blames it on the government.
“The fishers had high hopes on the station. After a year, we realised that it was incapable of doing anything for our security," he said. “The guards don't even know swimming and they are scared of venturing into the sea.”
The police conducts no periodic mock drill or a night-long search leaving the shores vulnerable. At least 24 fishermen had miraculously escaped on April 8, 2013, as a fibre boat capsized mid sea off Ambalappuzha coast and fellow fishermen present on the spot rescued them as the coastal police miserably failed.
On March 1 that year, four fishers were killed as a cargo ship rammed into their boat. In March 2009, spotting of an unidentified group of persons on the Pallipuram coast had raised a furore.
