The Central Industrial Security Force which guards hundreds of Central government installations, including nuclear reactors, oil refineries, airports and government offices has baffled home ministry mandarins. The paramilitary force, which has 1.45 lakh officers and jawans, recently got approval for increasing its size to 1.8 lakh personnel. Yet, the CISF has made a fresh demand for more men citing increased passenger loads, and the introduction of travel from small airports under the UDAN connectivity programme.
The force argues that its 25,000 personnel meant for airport security, including passenger screening, are not enough; it wants 19,000 more. Interestingly, this comes at a time when the home ministry has made a case for taking over the bureau of civil aviation security, which is administratively under the civil aviation ministry. The argument is that all security agencies should function under one umbrella.
But, what perplexed the home ministry was that the CISF has offered to provide security advice to private schools in the country, for a monthly fee of 14 lakh each. The offer came after the murder of a schoolboy in a Gurgaon school, and did not include provision of armed or unarmed guards during school hours. Senior CISF officers said the force was already providing consultancy for some state government institutions and office complexes of a few large private companies, and that the force alone has the expertise on guarding complexes which have several buildings visited by large numbers. The CISF also argued that its flat rate was much cheaper than what was being spent by some schools.
Illustration: Job P.K.
Should a specialist force, which has to look for saboteurs and disruptive elements in sensitive installations, use its energies to advise schools? Even though there was no provision of full-time guards, each consultancy assignment means assigning middle- or junior-level officers to visit the schools a few times in a month to give advice and to monitor implementation. Even if 10 per cent of 50,000 secondary and senior secondary schools in the country take up the offer, the number of work hours required would be big.
The question in the home ministry is whether the CISF is overreaching itself in an ambitious push to be the largest security provider in the country. Perhaps, the CISF could have encouraged retired personnel to form a consultancy to advise non-governmental institutions. That would also have added a few extra rupees to their pension. Home Minister Rajnath Singh has to take a final call on the demands and projections of the CISF, whose jawans patrol vital installations in adverse weather and also in air-conditioned comfort in airports.
sachi@theweek.in
