Facing the prospect of heightened illegal activities along the nearly 975 km-long coast of Andhra Pradesh, the Customs Department is seeking the help of villagers in preventing smuggling through scores of ‘sensitive landing points’ identified for the purpose.
These landing points are essentially fishermen villages dotting the coast that fall in the purview of Shore Guard Customs Preventive Units (SGCPU) at Kakinada, Machilipatnam, Narsapur, Ongole, Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam.
Each one of the SGCPU has 10 to 15 places which are absolutely safe for smugglers to carry out their clandestine activities in the absence of a foolproof monitoring mechanism.
In order to ensure that these desolate places do not make smuggling easy, officials and personnel manning the SGCPU are holding weekly meetings with the villagers to engage them in anti-smuggling operations.
Participation of the fisher folks is necessitated by the limited manpower that renders deployment of personnel of Customs Department all along the coast impossible.
Speaking to The Hindu , S. Khader Rahman, Commissioner of the newly-constituted Customs Preventive Commissionerate in Vijayawada, said the absence of Customs Houses between Kakinada and Krishnapatnam makes the villages in that coastal stretch vulnerable to smuggling and other illegal activities.
In addition to maintaining vigil around the sensitive landing points, the Regional Economic Intelligence Committee (REIC) meets at least once in two months under the chairmanship of Chief Commissioner of Central Excise and Customs in Visakhapatnam for exchanging the all-important information among a host of Central and State government agencies.
Strategy meeting
Strategies for combating economic offences are evolved in these meetings which involve CBI, SEBI and other regulatory agencies in addition to the Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Police of Andhra Pradesh.
The REIC met twice since January and the next meeting is scheduled for June at the Customs House in Visakhapatnam.
The Customs Department has its attention mostly glued to the Custom Houses at Kakinada and Krishnapatnam. Looking at other areas with equal focus has become its immediate priority in view of the possibility of economic activity picking up in the new State.
Absence of Customs Houses between Kakinada and Krishnapatnam makes the villages in the coastal stretch vulnerable to smuggling
