Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)
Udupi, Jan 18: Karnataka government's chief secretary (CS), T M Vijay Bhaskar, has issued orders to various departments, asking them to continue with the efforts being made to locate the whereabouts of the fishing boat, 'Suvarna Tribhuja' that had set sail from Malpe harbour with seven fishermen on December 15 last year before going missing under mysterious circumstances. He issued this order after holding meeting of Indian Navy, Coast Guard, superintendents of police of three coastal Karnataka districts, deputy commissioners, and fishermen representatives at Vidhana Soudha, Bengaluru on Thursday January 17 about coastal security and case of missing fishermen.
On the occasion, he also received reports about the search operations conducted so far on the issue, and scrutinized the progress.
On this occasion, he said there was information of a ship of the Indian Navy having been damaged on December 15 when it was passing through Maharashtra from Kochi. He asked the officials to investigate this information and submit a report. He said that the report received from Indian Space Research Organization has pictures of boats operating in a cluster near Malvan in Maharashtra on December 15 and 16. He said that these pictures have to be closely examined to find whether the boat, Suvarna Tribhuja, was among them.
Indian Navy officials said that normally they undertake search operations through ships or helicopters for a maximum period of 72 hours, but they are continuing with the operations because of the interest undertaken by the union defence minister.
During the discussions, the fishermen representatives drew the attention of the officials to the resistance from fishermen from Maharashtra and Goa against entry of fishermen from Malpe into their territory during emergency requirements like engine repair or ill health. The principal secretary of fisheries and animal husbandry department was asked to correspond with the chief secretaries of these two states, asking him to sort out the problem.
Western range inspector general of police, Arun Chakravarthy, fisheries director, Ramakrishna, joint director, Ramachari, superintendents of police of three coastal districts, deputy commissioners, Malpe Fishermen's Association president, Sathish Kunder, and secretary, Gopal R K, were present.