New Delhi : There have been many changes in the Parliament complex security system after the Central Industrial Security Force was given the responsibility by the home ministry two week ago, which include a doubling of personnel and scanning and frisking done by UN certified staff, according to officials familiar with the development.
“There are two components of 3,317 sanctioned personnel at Parliament. Almost 2,900 have taken charge. One component is the armed one, which is posted to thwart any terror attack or movement of infiltrators. They are armed and in their uniform,” a senior officer said, asking not to be named. “The others, who are frisking visitors or monitoring the baggage scanners, are wearing safari suits. They will be interacting with the visitors.”
Earlier, there were 1,400 personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force posted to deal with forced intrusion or terror attacks. The watchtowers and perimeter patrolling they used to conduct are now done by the CISF. The baggage counters were earlier manned by Delhi police personnel, who were assisted by the Parliamentary Security Service. The PSS is still assisting the CISF in the new scheme of things.
“All the CISF personnel on frisking and baggage scanning duty are those who have been certified by International Civil Aviation Organisation, the United Nations’ specialised agency that provides support for aviation security across member countries,” a second officer said, seeking anonymity. “Each have undergone two weeks of a certificate course. The armed component are those who have served in the Special Protection Group (SPG) and National Security Guard (NSG).”
The SPG is the country’s elite agency that oversees the Prime Minister’s security. The NSG is India’s counter terror unit used only in exceptional circumstances such as in 2008 during the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai and the terror attacks at the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot (CHECK) in 2016.
In December last year, a massive security breach took place at the Parliament complex. On the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament terror attack on December 13, two men walked through three layers of security with smoke canisters concealed in their shoes, vaulted into the Lok Sabha from the visitors’ gallery and sprayed smoke inside the chambers during Zero Hour. The home ministry ordered a security review, based on which the CISF was tasked to secure the Parliament complex.
Akin to the pattern followed at airports, those on frisking and baggage duty will be rotated in 25 minutes to avoid laxity. “Like the airports, visitors (not parliamentarians) will have to take off their shoes and wallets and pass it through the scanner. This was not done before. Delhi police were not mandated to check shoes or ask visitors to remove it. That is also why those intruders sneaked the canisters in their custom-made shoes with large wedges. But this is now part of the new system,” the first official said.
The staff of the PSS will continue to help the CISF personnel at access control areas till further orders. “If the PSS is removed completely from access control, then some form of training will have to be imparted to the CISF because it will be difficult for anyone to recognise each parliamentarian,” the officer said.
The changes also include having the CISF’s fire unit inside the complex. The force has a separate fire unit, which provides fire cover to 104 installations across India. Earlier, the fire fighting services was provided by Delhi Fire Services.
After results of the parliamentary polls are declared on June 4 and a new government takes over, and ahead of the monsoon session, the number of CISF personnel is likely to increase.
“When house is in session, Delhi police personnel will continue to man the roads, but the security inside will be with CISF,” the second officer said. “The PSS is in touch with the CISF and the number of additional people at each access control area is being worked out.”
(Courtesy: The Hindustan Times)
