Bhatkal, Nov 24: Defence minister Manohar Parrikar has dubbed Karnataka's coastal town of Bhatkal as a landing point of smugglers.
“Over 30 years ago, Goa was considered as a landing point for smugglers and now Bhatkal is considered as one,” said Mr Parrikar said addressing Navy personnel at the inauguration of the Information Management and Analysis centre (IMAC) of Navy in Haryana.
The minister in fact referred to the location of Bhatkal, even as certain areas of the coast in that region are reportedly under the scanner of security agencies due to possible terror-related activities and smuggling.
The Indian Navy will be able to keep a watch on vessels operating from the coastal waters around India right upto the South China Sea as part of the Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) that was commissioned by defence minister Parrikar at Gurgaon in Haryana on Sunday.
“What is important is a mindset. How do you catch up with the needle in the hay,” the defence minister said, as he recalled that the boat that had carried terrorists to Mumbai in 2008 for the 26/11 attacks was an Indian one which had been hijacked.
“Alert mind, alertness to isolate the problem is very important... We should try and strive towards zero error. Zero error is very important,” Mr Parrikar said. “And I would consider in this project, a zero tolerance to error is the most important factor,” he said.
Asked what he meant by zero error, Mr Parrikar said whatever gaps are left (in coastal security) should be filled. “You can't get everything perfect on day one itself. It will take may be six months and one year...,” he said, while mentioning the gaps in coverage by radar systems especially between Mangaluru and Goa as well as between Goa and Ratnagiri.
“Being from that place, I know that smuggling activity and of course, you know some terror export has happened from that area. Of course I don't want to put a tag on it, definitely there are some activities which need close monitoring,” he said.
Maintaining that although there is a radar link to Bhatkal, Mr Parrikar was quoted as saying, “So for almost 350 km (the distance from Mangaluru to Goa), there is no radar point. Similarly, Goa-Ratnagiri, there are no radar points.”
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