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Fishing boats should
have VHF and GPS equipment
June 02, 2007
Kochi, June 2 (PTI): Stressing the need for equipping
fishing boats with modern communication gadgets for the safety of fishermen, a top Coast Guard official yesterday said the
agency was prepared to train the fishermen in handling them.
The Coast Guard had been communicating to all state
governments to insist on the fishermen to have equipment like the Very High Frequency (VHF) and Global Positioning System
(GPS) in their boats for their own safety, Inspector General A. Rajasekhar, Commander, Coast Guard Region (West), told mediapersons
onboard Coast Guard ship 'Varuna' here.
Pointing out that a fishing vessel would cost about Rs 15 lakhs
and the VHF and GPS would be in the range of Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000, he said "I find no reason why they should not put
in place these equipment."
Rajasekhar said the Gujarat Government was giving a lot of impetus in this regard
and 20 to 25 per cent of the fishing boats had already been fitted with such equipment.
Replying to a query on
the decrease in the number of people joining defence forces, he said 'This is not only for Coast Guard. This is a matter
of concern for all the services including Navy and Army. We are not getting the right quality, even though we do have large
numbers applying for the job.'
On youngsters opting for IT and computer based jobs, he said it was well known
that because of the pay other benefits they were opting for such jobs.
Defence Minister, A K Antony, had recently
said that the matter had been taken up with the sixth Pay Commission.
Source: The Hindu
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