Thaindian News

Mumbai, July 15 (IANS) In the wake of Wednesday’s triple blasts, a Mumbai NGO Friday urged the central government to regulate sand barges plying through the city harbour and subject them to security checks.

In a letter to Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Aawaaz Foundation chief Sumaira Abdulali said that at present the sand barges were licensed by rural tehsildars (sub-district officers) of Raigad and Ratnagiri districts of Maharashtra.

She said that applications made under the Right to Information Act revealed that these sand barges were not licensed or monitored by the director general of shipping (DGS), the Maharashtra Maritime Board or the Indian Coast Guard.

These barges, mainly owned or controlled by local politicians, indulging in illegal sand mining, carry sand from Ratnagiri, Raigad through the Mumbai harbour to Navi Mumbai, Thane and other locations, she said.

“Only recently, these sand barges have started getting licences from local tehsildars. All concerned agencies must be aware of the high security risk of such unmonitored activity in the heart of Mumbai city, and yet, the only action of the state government has been to notify that barges must henceforth be licensed by tehsildars,” Abdulali said.

She urged the central government to ensure that the sand barges plying through the harbour were subjected to stringent security checks.

The activist suggested that all sand barges - the numbers of which were not available with any authority - should be registered by the DGS along with appropriate permissions from the Mumbai Port Trust or the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.

The sand barges pass virtually unhindered through the high security area of Mumbai harbour, which has two general ports and a naval port and a dockyard.

The sea route was used by 10 Pakistani terrorists who sneaked into Mumbai and carried out the Nov 26, 2008, terror attacks in which 166 were killed and over 300 injured, she said.