Ten years after 10 terrorists slipped ashore on a south Mumbai beach on a November evening, before unleashing 60 hours of mayhem that left 174 people dead, the Centre and the State government are sparring over the maintenance costs of patrol boats to secure Maharashtra’s extensive coastline.
The Home Ministry’s Department of Border Management has linked the release of the latest reimbursements towards the cost of fuel and lubricants for operating more than two dozen patrol boats supplied to Maharashtra to the actual hours of tasks performed. The boats were given in the wake of the 2008 terror strikes to the State, which was being asked to furnish details on the number of hours of ‘tasking’ undertaken by the boats, State officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The State’s claim of ₹62.01 lakh towards petroleum, oil, lubricant (POL) charges incurred on 24 boats provided under the Coastal Security Scheme during 2017-18 had been withheld, the officials said.
The latest reimbursement bills were raised, as they had been in the past, first by Mumbai police’s motor transport section (MTS) and then approved by the Director-General of Police (Coastal Security). The final State-level sanction was accorded by the Joint Secretary (Coast) in Maharashtra’s Home Department. This time, the claims elicited a question from the Deputy Secretary, Union Ministry of Home Affairs, on the “actual hours of tasking of boats”.
Observing that the Centre had routinely sanctioned such bills earlier, an official said this was the first instance when an issue was being raised over the tasked hours.
“The Centre has asked us for details of hours of ‘tasking’ for the claims and refused to release until the errors in claims are clarified,” said a senior official of the Maharashtra Home Department. “It seems there is an anomaly in the hours the boats were used and the charges claimed. We are trying to understand what went wrong,” the official added, without elaborating.
In September 2009, the Director, Border Management-2, Ministry of Home Affairs, had signed an agreement with the State government for periodical sharing of POL charges.
The first bill — of ₹2.6 crore for four boats operated off Mumbai in 2009-10, 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 — was submitted two years ago.
This was followed by a bill of ₹8.44 crore raised for POL charges incurred on 24 boats patrolling the rest of Maharashtra.
Centre gives 28 boats
As part of the Coastal Security Scheme introduced following the Mumbai attacks, the Centre had provided 28 speed boats to Maharashtra. The operability of these boats too has been a sore point.
Terming the Home Ministry’s objection “frivolous”, the senior State government official said: “How does it matter how many man-hours the boats sail when they are getting grounded time and again?”