At a security review meeting chaired by the adviser to the Administrator of Lakshadweep, a decision was taken to deploy “responsible government servants on board local fishing boats” for intelligence gathering.
The move has invited criticism from the islanders who felt that it was meant to trigger tensions. “Fishing is on hold now with the onset of monsoon. But the order is primarily to provoke the fishing community to react,” said an islander on condition of anonymity.
The review meeting also decided to strengthen security measures to monitor local fishing boats and crew. Instructions would be issued to intensify checking of motorised vessels reaching the islands. CCTV cameras would be installed at vessel berthing points and at helipads. Passenger and luggage checking should be done at Beypore and New Mangaluru too.
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Waste management
In another notification issued on June 4, the Lakshadweep administration issued a slew of instructions for managing waste. The instructions include asking persons and families to dispose of “tender coconut shell, tree leaves, coconut husk, coconut shell, trunks etc in and around dwelling places/public places.”
“All residents in the Union Territory limits should maintain their peripheral area of 25-metre radius of their household litter-free or else responsibility shall be fixed on dwelling house/resident... (sic)”, reads the order.
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There’s a fine against violators and criminal proceedings will be initiated against them, the order issued by District Collector Asker Ali says.
Nizamuddin K.I., member of the Dweep panchayat in Kavaratti, said the waste management system on the islands is far from well-organised and it has been entrusted with a private agency lately. “Maybe the intent of the new order is to register cases against people and to say the islands are a hotbed of crime,” he said.
Cargo from Mangaluru
Meanwhile, the Lakshadweep administration in a press release said on Friday that a cargo barge from New Mangaluru had berthed at Kadmat, Kiltan and Chetlat islands with ‘essential commodities and other important items’. The release sought to justify shifting of cargo transport from Beypore in Kerala to New Mangaluru saying that the cargo could be loaded faster. It also results is savings on fuel, the release contended.