The Madras High Court was on Monday was apprised of concerns raised by the Centre with regard to State’s decision to provide satellite phones to fishermen, and the reply sent by the latter allaying all fears of such phones being used by terrorists to organise activities such as the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Justices S. Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad were told that M. Sivaguru, Under Secretary (Indian Ocean Region), Union Ministry of External Affairs, had sent an e-mail to the State government on January 18 stating that the satellite phones might end up causing threats to the safety and security of the nation. In reply, the Director of Fisheries G.S. Sameeran, on January 30, informed the Union Ministry that the Global Satellite Phone Service services provided by the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited had its lawful interception and monitoring system for all designated security agencies as per Standard Operating Procedure. The conversations made through ISAT phones within the Indian territory were fully traceable. and could be monitored in a way similar to monitoring of mobile phone calls. Further, with the implementation of geo fencing, the ISAT phones would not work outside the Indian territory, the Ministry was told. The communications were produced during the hearing of a PIL plea filed by Fishermen Care, a NGO., through its counsel L.P. Maurya, seeking a direction to refer alleged human rights violations committed by the Sri Lankan Navy against Indian fishermen on the high seas to International Court of Justice. During the course of hearing of the case, the judges had suggested that the State government could provide maximum possible subsidy to the fishermen for fixing transponders, developed by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), in their boats so that they do not end up crossing the Indian Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) by mistake. Replying to it, Additional Government Pleader E. Manoharan said, such transponders, costing ?40,000 each, had already been fitted in 507 boats in Chennai, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Thoothukudi and Kanniyakumari districts on a pilot basis and some of the fishermen had complained about the battery power not lasting for more than 30 minutes. Therefore, it had been decided to make a field study at the Chennai fishing harbour to solve the battery draining issue. Simultaneously, the State government had scheduled a meeting with ISRO officials this week to discuss various issues related to the transponders, he said and undertook to apprise the court of the developments by February 20. On his part, Assistant Solicitor General G. Karthikeyan told the court that the Centre was in favour of use of the transponders and that they had been installed not only in Tamil Nadu but also in the fishing boats in Gujarat and Puducherry. He, however, made it clear that the Union Home Ministry had no plans to provide satellite phones to fishermen.