The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has informed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs that a joint team of officers visited six seaports in Gujarat, including the Adani Tuna Port, after the panel sought to know the action taken against more than 20 seaport immigration check-posts (ICP) running in violation of rules with implications for national security.
The details are mentioned in a report titled ‘Action Taken by Government on the Recommendations/Observations contained in the Two Hundred Forty Second Report of the Committee on Demands for Grants (2023-24) of MHA’ that was presented in the Rajya Sabha on December 7.
Earlier, in a report tabled in the Upper House in March, the panel had sought to know of the bottlenecks in the effective functioning of seaport ICPs. In this report, the parliamentary panel said that it agreed with the MHA that the non-notified ICPs were entry points for unregulated and unchecked passengers/crew, and potential security hazards having implications for national security.
The Ministry replied that, at present, India has 31 authorised seaport ICPs and, out of them, 10 ICPs are under the direct control and management of the Bureau of Immigration (BoI), MHA. The remaining ICPs are controlled by State police agencies.
Responding to a pointed query by the panel, the MHA’s response as mentioned in the latest report said that the matter had been taken up with the concerned States, and with the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW).
The report stated: “A joint team comprising officers of the MHA/BoI, NIC (National Informatics Centre), and the Gujarat State Home department, local police visited 6 non-designated seaports (namely Hazira, Dahej, Pipavav, Sikka, Navlakhi and Tuna Old Port (Adani Tuna Port) of Gujarat. After assessing the infrastructure and manpower requirement, the State Government has been requested to provide the same.”
It said that the required infrastructure for the Kollam seaport had been provided by the Kerala government, and a notification to designate it an authorised ICP was under examination.
Dhamra seaport in Odisha was notified as an authorised ICP on July 11, and State government would provide resources to the BoI to operationalise immigration functions at the earliest, the report said. For the Hemnagar (riverport), the West Bengal government and the MoPSW have been requested to provide necessary infrastructure.
“In respect of the remaining 11 non notified marine seaports, the matter has been taken up with the respective States. The issue will be taken forward with the concerned State Governments and pursued till their logical conclusion,” the report said, without naming the said ports.
The MHA also informed the panel that a committee has been constituted to prepare a “model FIR” (First Information Report) for the registration of cases pertaining to narcotics. The Ministry said the initiative will strengthen investigation and the prosecution’s procedure in such cases.
The format of the FIR would be different from the one in use presently for all crimes.
The joint committee has been formed by the Bureau of Police Research and Development in collaboration with the Narcotics Control Bureau.
The Ministry said that the National Forensic Science University (NFSU) has created the prototype of a digital kit for testing narcotics when they are seized.
“NFSU has informed that prototype development of the NDPS (Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) detection kit is completed and they will provide kits to Narcotics Control Bureau (Ahmedabad) very shortly to ascertain the effectiveness of the kit to test its sensitivity and precision,” the Ministry informed the parliamentary panel.
