The Andhra Pradesh State fisheries authorities have finalised a draft to constitute ‘Sagar Mitras,’ an alternative coastal intelligence system, to be deployed at all fish landing points along the 974-km-long coastline.
Addressing boat operators in Krishna district on Wednesday, Fisheries Department additional director K. Seetarama Raju said that the State government was directed by the Central intelligence wings to set up the Sagar Mitra system to provide credible inputs on the activities along the coastline.
Under the Sagar Mitra system, each fish landing point — between Srikakulam district sharing border with Odisha and Nellore sharing border with Tamil Nadu — will have a five-member team.
The teams’ task is to document movements of strangers, new vehicles and other activities and alert the intelligence wings which in turn will take steps to prevent the entry of elements planning to carry out terrorist attacks. “The Sagar Mitras will be drawn from the local communities and offered some financial package for their services. This will become an additional intelligence-gathering appartus supplementing the efforts of the marine police and the Coast Guard,” said Mr. Seetaramaraju.
‘Colour code’
The boat operators have been directed to strictly follow the ‘colour code’ for the boats. “A request has been made to the Central government to set up four branches in the State to issue biometric cards to fishermen,” said Mr. Seetaramaraju.
The additional director said many measures were being planned to strengthen intelligence and care in the area of ‘marine fishing’ in the proposed revision of the Andhra Pradesh Marine Fishing (Regulation) Act, 1995.
