With a special bike rally on safety awareness among fishermen, Coast Guard has began a unique connecting proposition with those living on the coastal areas of West Bengal and Odisha. The Coast Guard Regional Headquarters of North East in collaboration with Hero MotoCorp flagged off a team of 20 bikers who will be covering around 1200 km. In the next six days they will be passing by the fishermen colonies at Contai, Digha, Dhamra, Paradip, Chandipur and Haldia. The rally started from Kolkata and will cover all the coastal districts of West Bengal and Odisha. Air Chief Marshal (retired) Arup Raha graced the event saying the Coast Guard’s efforts to save lives at sea is worthy of praise . FISHERMEN ARE EYES AND EARS OF COAST GUARD With the participation of state fisheries department and medical officers from Navy, the rally is being conducted for the fishermen who have been the eyes and ears for the coastal guards. It is an initiative taken by the Coastal Guard to aware the fishermen regarding the threats and safety that they need to keep in mind. “We will go and meet all the fishermen and will be providing them with medical facilities, as in the long run fishermen are the eyes and ears for providing information to us. So we teach them how to take care of themselves and the possibilities of different types of threats,” said Commander of the Coast Guard North East Region Inspector General KR Nautiyal. MEDICAL CAMP FOR FISHERMEN During this period a medical camp will be set up for the fishermen and community interaction programme will also take place. “Where ever we will be stopping, we are going to do community interaction programme with the fishermen and will be providing medical camp, after six days we will come back to Kolkata,” he said.