Indian Coast Guard presence ensures there is no influx from Sri Lanka: DG VS Pathania

By Sahil Pandey
Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], August 27 (ANI): The Indian Coast Guard Director-General Virender Singh Pathania on Saturday said that the presence of his force ensures that there is no influx of people from Sri Lanka amidst the crisis in the island country.
"Our presence ensures that there is no influx. So that is our basic role is to ensure deterrence, and if they still land up in shallow water channels then we just provide humanitarian assistance and then hand it over. With the ongoing situation, patrol is taking place and We have the hovercrafts which are typical to the Coast Guard mandate, these hovercrafts can even be deployed at short notice they have good speeds and they can be flown both over the sea and land. These are the best instruments and we have them," Pathania told ANI.
He also lauded the Indian Coast Guard's effort in rescuing 32 Bangladesh fishermen and said the increase in presence in the sea has reduced the time to respond to a distress call.
Further adding, "I have said that over a period of time we have been empowered so much I've got so many units, so my (ICG) presence at Sea has increased and my response time is reduced, but the ship cited them stranded on some of the wrecks of a boat which was broken, some were floating around and we picked them up and this was in three different occasions where the total number amounted to 32," he said.
The Indian Coast Guard on Tuesday handed over 32 Bangladeshi fishermen who were rescued from sea to the Bangladesh Coast Guard.
The fishermen were transferred from the ICGS Varad to the BCGS Tajuddin at a ceremony held at the Indo-Bangla International Maritime Boundary Line.
The 10th edition of the National Maritime Search & Rescue Exercise (SAREX -22) was inaugurated in Chennai today by Dr Ajay Kumar, Defence Secretary, Government of India.
The two-day exercise which is conducted under the aegis of the National Maritime Search and Rescue Board (NMSARB) is hosted by the Indian Coast Guard, the nodal maritime SAR coordinating agency for the Indian Search & Rescue Region (ISRR).
In addition to 51 participants from national Maritime SAR stakeholders, the exercise is being attended by 24 foreign observers from 16 friendly foreign countries.
SAREX-22 will be spread over two days (Aug 27 & 28, 2022) and will validate the Standard Operating Procedures and best practices during the conduct of a Mass Rescue Operation (MRO). (ANI)