A parliamentary committee has slammed the civil aviation and home ministries over several "glaring loopholes" in security at airports across the country.
The absence of surveillance cameras at various spots and low fencing of airport boundary walls are some of the major breaches that need to be "fixed immediately", says the report tabled in the Rajya Sabha today by the standing committee on transport, tourism and culture.
The panel, headed by Trinamul MP K.D. Singh, has listed the "inadequate number of watch towers, unavailability of dog squads and counter-terrorism contingency plans at most airports, and acute shortage of gadgets" as the other airport flaws "not to be taken lightly".
But the most grave of the chinks red-flagged by the panel as "scary" is that of the 98 functional airports in the country, 39 are not manned by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) whose personnel have been trained for the purpose since 2000. Among the 39 is the sensitive Srinagar airport .
The panel has turned down a civil aviation ministry proposal for a dedicated "Airport Security Force". It has said that the CISF, and not any state police or other paramilitary force, should guard airports.
Senior ministry officials appeared to play down the concerns over the 39 airports managed by the state police, pointing out that all agencies were required to follow guidelines set by the Centre's Bureau of Civil Aviation Security. "The Security Aviation Group of the CISF undergoes the most extensive training for the purpose but the force has to be paid by the state police for its services. Some states are reluctant to pay high service charges to the CISF and deploy their own police personnel instead," said a director in the ministry.
Airport security was reviewed in the wake of the 1999 hijack of the Indian Airlines flight to Kandahar. It was decided then that a single dedicated force should be in charge instead of different state police forces with divergent work culture and practices.
21/12/15 The Telegraph
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The absence of surveillance cameras at various spots and low fencing of airport boundary walls are some of the major breaches that need to be "fixed immediately", says the report tabled in the Rajya Sabha today by the standing committee on transport, tourism and culture.
The panel, headed by Trinamul MP K.D. Singh, has listed the "inadequate number of watch towers, unavailability of dog squads and counter-terrorism contingency plans at most airports, and acute shortage of gadgets" as the other airport flaws "not to be taken lightly".
But the most grave of the chinks red-flagged by the panel as "scary" is that of the 98 functional airports in the country, 39 are not manned by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) whose personnel have been trained for the purpose since 2000. Among the 39 is the sensitive Srinagar airport .
The panel has turned down a civil aviation ministry proposal for a dedicated "Airport Security Force". It has said that the CISF, and not any state police or other paramilitary force, should guard airports.
Senior ministry officials appeared to play down the concerns over the 39 airports managed by the state police, pointing out that all agencies were required to follow guidelines set by the Centre's Bureau of Civil Aviation Security. "The Security Aviation Group of the CISF undergoes the most extensive training for the purpose but the force has to be paid by the state police for its services. Some states are reluctant to pay high service charges to the CISF and deploy their own police personnel instead," said a director in the ministry.
Airport security was reviewed in the wake of the 1999 hijack of the Indian Airlines flight to Kandahar. It was decided then that a single dedicated force should be in charge instead of different state police forces with divergent work culture and practices.
21/12/15 The Telegraph
