The Central Marine Police Academy, which was planned at Machilipatnam a year ago, has failed to make headway beyond the proposal stage for the reason best known to the Centre. The academy was proposed by the Union government to impart training to marine police on the east coast.
After the Mumbai terror attack, the Centre had decided to step up security along the coastline by setting up Marine Police Stations. As part of the move, six police stations have already been set up in the fishermen villages in the first phase and 15 more have been sanctioned. To impart the necessary training to marine police in dealing the anti-terrorist operations along the coastline, the Union government had planned to start a national-level marine police training academy in Andhra Pradesh.
The Union Home Ministry reportedly sought 300 acres for the academy and the State government has agreed to allocate around 200 acres for the project near Pedapatnam village. But, the proposal to set up the academy has been gathering dust since then.
A delegation headed by Principal Secretary (Home) T.P. Das, Inspector General of Police (Marine Police) K. Srinivas Reddy and then Krishna district Superintendent of Police J. Prabhakara Rao and other officials even visited Pedapatnam near Machilipatnam for selection of the site.
When contacted, Krishna Collector M. Raghunandan Rao said that the Krishna district administration had agreed to allocate land for the project and conveyed the same to the Centre. However, there was no further communication from the Centre, said Mr. Rao.
“It will be good news for people if the academy comes at Machilipatnam. The national-level academy will impart training to marine police in AP and other States which have vast coastline,” an officer told The Hindu .
