KOCHI: The Lakshadweep administration has withdrawn the order issued on June 2 to deploy government employees in fishing boats for intelligence collection and to monitor local fishing boats. However, collector S Askar Ali claimed that the order was not withdrawn and was in fact misinterpreted.
“The order was issued as per our normal procedure of physical verification. We deploy government staff for physical verification of people who arrive on the island for 72 hours when we receive such alerts. It is not possible to deploy employees in all fishing boats as we have limited staff,” he told TNIE. The collector said the order issued by port director had clearly said ‘so may be deemed fit for intelligence gathering’.
There is no fishing activity in the region as the two-month monsoon fishing ban is in place. There are no restrictions on country crafts operating in the lagoon. So the question of deploying government staff in fishing boats doesn’t arise, he said.
The order issued by port director Sachin Sharma on June 2 had directed to depute government staff ‘on board local fishing boats’ so may be deemed fit for intelligence gathering and to strengthen security measures to monitor fishing boats and crew.’