New Delhi: Even as governments across the world have been scrambling to deal with new threats to passenger aircraft which emerged through 2014 — lethal liquid explosives, anti-aircraft missiles, and crew members-turned-terrorists — India’s own civil aviation security agency, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), has been headless for more than two years, government documents accessed by The Indian Express show.
Last month, the documents also show, the Ministry of Civil Aviation scrapped rules mandating that the BCAS’s head, the Commissioner of Security, Civil Aviation, be chosen from among Directors-General of Police with hands-on security expertise. The BCAS lays down security guidelines, and audits their implementation by government agencies and airlines. Instead, highly placed sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said, the Ministry of Civil Aviation now plans to invite applications for the position from additional-secretary rank bureaucrats or police officers with just three years security-related experience. Interestingly, rules require that the BCAS chief’s two deputies have at least 10 years security-related experience.
31/12/14 Praveen Swami and Geeta Gupta/Financial Express
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Last month, the documents also show, the Ministry of Civil Aviation scrapped rules mandating that the BCAS’s head, the Commissioner of Security, Civil Aviation, be chosen from among Directors-General of Police with hands-on security expertise. The BCAS lays down security guidelines, and audits their implementation by government agencies and airlines. Instead, highly placed sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said, the Ministry of Civil Aviation now plans to invite applications for the position from additional-secretary rank bureaucrats or police officers with just three years security-related experience. Interestingly, rules require that the BCAS chief’s two deputies have at least 10 years security-related experience.
31/12/14 Praveen Swami and Geeta Gupta/Financial Express
