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Ramesh Purohit

Trans-global terrorism - a major challenge: CISF DG

Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) shoulders the adverse and diverse responsibility to guard country's key and strategic installations. As the Director General of CISF, gigantic responsibility and expectations for excellence, all together forms makes Rajiv's task tougher. Whispersinthecorridors shares his insight into the esteemed and robust security-regime that is known as CISF. 'Trans-global terrorism has come up as a major challenge', says Rajiv, Director General, CISF in a candid and extensive interview.

With our Delhi Bureau Chief Rakesh Ranjan. Excerpts:

Q1. Expanding and diversifying security responsibilities of strategic installations like Delhi metro rail, domestic and international airports mean more feathers in the cap of CISF. How do you feel about
the challenges ahead?

Ans: The CISF has been making mark in the protection of critical infrastructure, strategic installations and historical assets as well with dedication and thorough professionalism. It came into existence in 1969 to provide security cover to the giant PSUs. But in a span of about five decades CISF is no longer a PSU-centric organization. Instead, it has transformed into a premier multi-skilled security agency mandated to play role and responsibility in diversified sectors. Threat from trans-national terrorism and naxalism has broadened our mandate.

Comprising a strength of one lakh and thirty one thousand personnel on its roll today CISF is currently providing security cover to nuclear installations, space establishments, airports, Delhi Metro Rail, seaports, power, coal, oil and steel sector, mints/security press, sensitive Government buildings and VIP security, Disaster Management, heritage monuments, private establishments, Indian embassy at Nepal.

Keeping in view the challenges ahead the increasing use of cutting edge technology and skill up-gradation has taken us far ahead in up-graded weaponry, equipments/modern gadgets, BDDS and Dog squads etc. Putting them all together CISF has transformed into a highly professional and techno-savy Central Armed Police Force.

Q2. Your security tasks, all together, form a spectrum of adverse and diversified challenges. How would you respond if one comments that the nature and character of CISF is quite similar to that of India where
adversity and vast diversity rest in synergy?

Ans: Yes, the nature and character of CISF is quite similar to that of India where adversity and diversity rests in oneness/synergy. I firmly feel that the experience and competence of CISF emanates from the wide and diversified range of responsibility itself.

As I counted about the several installations earlier; the nature and security threats of installations are different, their geographical locations, climatic conditions and socio-cultural environment too are different. Ironically, all together it helps us making the Force people-friendly but at the same time, very tough on security aspects. Ina nut-shell I would say that; the adaptability to varied situation with better understanding and enriched experience has become the hallmark of the Force.

Q3. How does your Masters degree in Physics help you 'mastering the security challenges of sophisticated technical and technological installations'?

Ans: Somewhere down the line it really helps. In fact; the prevailing security environment in the country it is just impossible to think of security matrix without the application of advanced technology. My academic background of Physics enables me to understand the system and take quick decisions. It helps in maintaining the optimal use of modern gadgets and manpower in a cost-effective manner as well. After
all, the national security environment and needs have made CISF a techno-savvy Force.

Q4. As you said earlier; the threat from trans-national terrorism and naxalism ad dimension to the challenges. With the changing time, technology and global scenario do you foresee some new challenges and countering methods ahead?

Ans: As I said earlier, lots of things have changed in a span of about five decades; the security needs of our country and so as the CISF. Apart from earlier threats viz sabotage, espionage, subversion, theft and pilferage, white color crime etc, the trans-global terrorism has come up as a major challenge. The various terrorist groups and outfits have adopted advanced technologies to inflict greater losses to the life and property. The entire world has seen that how terrorists used aircrafts as missile in 09/11 attack to cause annihilation.

The threats vary from unit to unit on account of the terrain and locational vulnerability of the establishments. For examples, sea ports, few atomic energy stations and other sectors are located at sea-coast; these are exposed to the waterfronts and face major threats from sea-side. Accordingly, our boys are trained as marine commando, apart from static guarding they carry out patrolling by boats equipped with required weapons and gadgets.

Another major fronts is naxal menace, these groups are causing greater threats for internal security of the country. They are operating not from jungles and rural areas but they are shifted to the thickly populated locations. Tough terrain also makes our jobs tougher. We have 51 units in LWE areas, our officers and men are in the forefront to fight against them. Our SOPs and operational plans are made differently for different sectors like Airports, Metro rail, Government Buildings, Heritage Monuments, Coal, Steel, Power, Oil, Space etc to safeguard from internal and external threats.

Q5. One lac and thirty thousand personnel on its roll; a gigantic size! Would you please give an insight as how does CISF maintain the balance between quantity-needs, quality stricture and diversified training regime?

Ans: Dynamics of change have dictated several novel initiatives within the CISF. The manpower-intensive units are being pruned with introduction of security gadgets. In highly sensitive areas, such as atomic energy, space and few airports, security functions like access control, intrusion detection and surveillance have been automated to a great extent.

Keeping in view the importance of training, modern training aids have been provided at CISF Academy (NISA) as well as, at the six other RTCs (Regional Training Centres). At each of the 6 RTCs we have developed additional training skills for specializing in a particular aspect of security. The National Industrial Security Academy at Hyderabad is a centre of excellence and has been developed as a premier institute in the country in disaster management training, where, it is proposed to have training facilities and infrastructure at par with international standards.

Q6. How would you rate the roles played, as yet, by CISF in Peace-keeping force in foreign countries?

Ans: Our officers and men are doing commendable job in the foreign country. Presently, a 140 strong CISF Formed Police Unit (FPU) contingent is deployed at Port-au-Prince in Haiti from October 2008 as a part of UN stabilization mission in Haiti. Our contingent is assisting the Haitian National Police in weapon control and public security measures and also ensured the restoration and maintenance of the role of law, public safety and public order in Haiti through operational support as well as with their institutional strengthening to the Haitian National Police. During earthquake in Haiti, our contingent played a significant role in rescue operations and medical assistance to the general public of the Haiti. The performance has been quite encouraging.

Q7. Despite of exemption from RTI act (2nd schedule) CIC annual report says that CISF and its PAs have filed their annual returns. Does it indicate that in the time to come, leaving aside the strategic matters, CISF would gradually open up for RTI in the matters of administrative nature?

Ans: Yes, we believe in maintaining proper transparency in all aspects. We will abide by the decision and directives of the Government in this regard.

Q8. CISF provides security cover to the private sector as well for big industrial and business installations. What are the qualification and parameters for getting CISF security cover? And also, what is the rationale behind it?

Ans: CISF is a bi-product of Indian socialist-era and Nehruvian dream. However, with changing economic as well as security environment the role of CISF has dramatically altered and now it CISF has been shouldered with the responsibility of the private sectors after amendment in the CISF Act in 2009.

Adhering to that CISF provides security covers to the establishments which are vital to the country's economic security and growth and whose loss or serious damage would affect India's international image adversely. These may include Petroleum and Natural Gas installations, IT and Communication Institutions with major linkages with other economics, Power Sector installations, Sea-Ports etc. Also, such establishments must be located in Naxal, Militancy affected or Vulnerable Areas. Private institutions with an iconic status in the country are also eligible for CISF cover.

Is worst over for Congress?
The whispers is that the worst is over for the Congress and things could only look better from here on.

Senior people flying in his aeroplane is a fact
The travails of Vijay Mallya may ensnare a number of senior personalities in Government of India. It is learnt that the visits of eminent personalities in Mallya's jet flying plane to attend Grand Prix events abroad in the last few years is being accessed to target frequent travellers who not only flew in the private plane but also enjoyed unrestricted freebies at hotels and associated perks--AHEM. The personalties never realised that the aeroplane manifests are a sure give away to ''Waltzing Matildas".

Did SEBI Chief meet President?
Did SEBI Chief U K Sinha meet the President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday? Any significance.

BUREAUCRACY

Will Nehchal Sandhu be Governor J & K?
Latest grapevine has it that Chief of the IB Nehchal Sandhu is being appointed Governor of J & K. He is considered to be only experienced person for J & K affairs. 1973 batch Bihar cadre IPS officer Sandhu is scheduled to superannuate on December 31.

R C Mishra to be Member, CAT

Former Secretary, Administrative Reforms, in the Government of India R C Mishra is being appointed Member of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). He is a retired 1976 batch IAS officer of Orissa cadre.
(We said this on September 10, 2012)

Empanelment list of 1979 batch IAS in Cabinet Secretariat
Empanelment list of 1979 batch IAS officers to the rank of Secretary in the Government of India is presently lying in the Cabinet Secretariat.

11 IFS officers of 1979 batch empanelled
Altogether 11 Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers belonging to 1979 batch have been empanelled to the rank of Secretary. One officer of this batch could not make it.

Collegium did not decide about SC Judge
The Supreme Court Collegium which met last week reportedly did not decide about the appointment of Judge in the Supreme Court of India. Presently there are six vacancies of the Judges in the SC.

Pranab Sen to retire
Principal Advisor Energy in the Planning Commission Pranab Sen is reportedly retiring by this month end.

Rathore joins as IG, NDRF
Sandeep Rai Rathore has joined as IG, National Disaster Response Force &Civil Defence (NDRF & CD). He is a 1992 batch IPS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre .

Who will be new DG Jharkhand ?
There is a buzz that an outsider IPS officer may be appointed (DGP) Director General of Jharkhand Police?

Amit Prasad is new DIG, ITBP Dehradun
Amit Prasad, DIG, ITBP, North East Frontier, Sikkim Sector, has joined as DIG, ITBP- Northern Frontier Dehradun sector. He is a 1995 batch IPS officer of Punjab cadre.

Shailendra Singh to move to Delhi
Shailendra Singh is moving to Delhi as Special Commissioner (Coordination) in the Madhya Pradesh Bhawan. He is a 1988 batch IAS officer of MP cadre.

Dharmendra Sharma is also Nodal officer
Dharmendra Sharma, Joint Secretary (IS-I), Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, has also been appointed Nodal officer for implementation of the various programme/schemes undertaken by MHA in Delhi State. He is a 1988 batch IAS officer of AGMT cadre.

Three officers shifted in Railways

Three senior officers have been given fresh postings in Railways. Accordingly, P K Ranade, SAG/IRTS/WR, has been transferred to Central Railway and posted in the cadre while K L Pandey, HAG/IRTS/WCR, presently working as COM, is being shifted to SCR and posted as AGM/SCR and Amitabh Lal, HAG/IRTS, presently working as ADV(C&IS), Railway Board was promoted as AM(Commercial), Railway Board.

Four new Collectors in Gujarat
The four districts in Gujarat Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Tapi and Dahod now have new Collectors.M Thennarasan replaced J B Vora as collector of Banaskantha district while Shahmina Hussain took over as collector of Sabarkantha from L C Patel. Rakesh Shankar has been made collector of Dahod in place of J M Luni and Shalini Agarwal has replaced R J Patel as the new collector of Tapi.

Faizabad DM and SP transferred
Ajay Shukla has replaced Deepak Agrawal as District Magistrate, Faizabad while Deepak Agarwal is being shifted to Lucknow Secretariat and Dharmendra Singh will be replacing Ramit Sharma as SSP.

5 IPS officers shifted in Uttarakhand (UPDATED)
As many as five IPS officers have been shifted in Uttarakhand. Accordingly, Neeru Garg has been posted as SP, PHQ while Kewal Khurana will now be SSP, Dehradun and Nilesh Anand Bharne was transferred as SP, SCRB, PHQ. Similarly, Ajay Rautela has been transferred as Police Training Centre Narendranagar and Riddhim Aggrawal is now as Commander 31 PAC, Rudrapur.

Nutan Guha Biswas to be Principal Secretary to Delhi LG (UPDATED)
Ms Nutan Guha Biswas is being appointed new Principal Secretary to the Delhi Lt Governnor. She is 1983 batch IAS officer of the UT cadre.

Rakesh Behari to be PS PWD in Delhi Government (UPDATED)
Principal Secretary to the Delhi Lt Governor, Rakesh Behari is being moved as Principal Secretary PWD in the Delhi Government. He is 1977 batch IAS officer of UT cadre.

Angaraj Mohan joins as CPO, Admn in Railways (UPDATED)
Angaraj Mohan has joined as Chief Personnel Officer, Administration in Railways. Earlier, he was Additional Divisional Railway Manager, Sonpur. He is a 1986 batch IRPS officer.

K V Rao selected as Director (Fin), HPCL (UPDATED)
K V Rao, ED, HPCL, has been selected for the post of Director (Finance), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) at a Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) meeting held on November 7, 2012. As many as 11 persons were interviewed for the same.

Three IAS shifted in TN (UPDATED)
Three officers of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) have been given fresh postings in Tamil Nadu. Accordingly, Dr R Christodas Gandhi has been posted as Additional Chief Secretary, Social Reforms Department while Dr Shanthini Kapoor will now be Principal Secretary, Special Programme Implementation and R Rajagopal is assigned full additional charge of Development Commissioner, Planning and Development.

Two IPS officers transferred in MP (UPDATED)
Two officers of Indian Police Service (IPS) have been transferred in Madhya Pradesh. Accordingly, Naval Singh Raghuvanshi has been appointed as AIG, PHQ, Bhopal while D Kalyan Chakravorty will now be CSP, Indore.


Two IPS officers get Senior Pay-scale in MP (UPDATED)
Two officers of Indian Police Service (IPS), namely Shiyas A and S Satish Bino have been accorded senior pay scale in Madhya Pradesh.

CORPORATE

Mrs V R Iyer is new CMD, Bank of India
Mrs V R Iyer who is currently Executive Director(ED) Central Bank of India (CBI) has been taken over as Chairperson cum Managing (CMD) of Bank of India (BoI).
( We said this On September 9 and again on October 18, 2012 )

Malay Mukherjee is new ED, Central Bank
General Manager (GM) in the Indian Bank Malay Mukherjee has taken over as an Executive Director (ED) in the Central Bank of India (CBI)
(We said this on July 10, 2012 )

Anil Tyagi is also Project Head in MP and CG
Head of Corporate Communications of Adani Group in MP and Chhattisgarh Anil Tyagi has also been made Head of Projects.

Verma appointed Director, Titan Industries Ltd
Hans Raj Verma, lAS, Chairman and Managing Director of Tamilnadu Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (TIDCO) has been appointed as a Director on the Board of Directors of Titan Industries .

Dhanavel quits Titan Industries Ltd
K Dhanavel, lAS Nominee Director of Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (TIDCO) on the Board of Titan Industries Ltd has resigned from the company.

Yogeshwaran quits TVS Electronics Ltd
N Yogeshwaran has resigned as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of TVS Electronics Ltd.

Srivastava appointed Addl. Director, Essar Shipping Ltd
Essar Shipping Ltd has appointed P K Srivastava as an Additional Director of the company.

Ahmed quits Omkar Pharmachem Ltd
Avej Ahmed has resigned as Director of Omkar Pharmachem Ltd.

Somani quits Raj Rayon Industries Ltd
Jagdishchanadra Somani has resigned as Non Executive Independent Director of Raj Rayon Industries Ltd.

Dalmiya appointed Independent Director, Raj Rayon Industries Ltd
Sumit Dalmiya has been appointed as Non Executive Independent Director of Raj Rayon Industries Ltd

Prakash quits Fairfield Atlas Ltd
Vivek Prakash has resigned as Director of Fairfield Atlas Ltd.

Sehgal appointed Director, Fairfield Atlas Ltd
Sunil Sehgal has been appointed as Director of Fairfield Atlas Ltd.

Kuvelkar quits Garware Wall Ropes Ltd
S M Kuvelker has resigned as Director of Garware Wall Ropes Ltd.

Mukhopadhyay quits Century Extrusions Ltd
Ms Suhita Mukhopadhyay has resigned as Company Secretary of Century Extrusions Ltd

Gidwani appointed Independent Director, Premco Global Ltd
Premco Global Ltd has appointed Prem I Gidwani as Independent Director of the company.

Kedia appointed as Director of Action Financial Services
Esha Kedia has been appointed as Director of Action Financial Services.

Deshpande appointed as Director of Ram Ratna Wires
Prashant Deshpande has been appointed as Director of Ram Ratna Wires.

Shrivastav appointed as Director of Essar Shipping
PL Shrivastav has been appointed asDirector of Essar Shipping.

Sinha quits LT Foods
Alok Sinha has resigned as Director of LT Foods.

Kapur appointed as Chairman of Tamil Nadu Petroproducts
Vikram Kapur has been appointed as Chairman of Tamil Nadu Petroproducts.

(The views expressed in this column are of the contributors. We do not owe any responsibility, whatsoever, of the views of our surfers as they are their personal opinion. However, we would also request our contributors not to be personal, directly or indirectly, in presenting their views. Instead of countering the views which ‘X’ has already expressed, our contributors are advised to present their own views. Also be brief, say about 200 words at the most since any views longer than that if eliminated at our end would carry the risk of the contrbutor’s item losing its original essence)

India's police should adopt London police example

London metro police is moving into a smaller building after selling off its famous Scotland Yard headquarters building to save 500 million pound sterling as part of the government cuts in the budget and austerity measures to overcome the economic crisis. A great example to follow for our Delhi City police which has an outsize building for its headquarters which would be eating up a humongous budget allocation when the government of India and the finance minister are whining about the yawning fiscal deficit and is withdrawing all subsidies to the common man with cooking gas being the latest target. The Delhi police building has been built bigger than even the office of the revenue-earning sales tax department which fetches over Rs 40000 crores annually. In this country the high-spender police department invariably gets away with a disproportionately high share of the national resources cake with no economy or austerity. If the famed London police which had to handle massive city-wide riots even in the recent past can be asked by the government to effect a budget cut to the extent of 500 million pounds and pursuant the police
agrees to sell off a third of its real estate, our police can also do the same to reduce public spending and strengthen the central and state budgets, instead of being treated as holy cows whose budgets should not be touched.

P K Mohanty

Long awaited news

This was a long awaited news. I earnestly request the CJI to hold such collegiums meets on quarterly basis if monthly is not possible. Most of the High Courts are functioning with almost 50 - 60% Judges of the total sanctioned seats. This large vacancy should be filled up on war level and same number of new seats should be created to ensure timely delivery of justice. Due to very high number of listing of cases in each bench daily, substantial time is consumed in adjourning the cases which can be utilised if number of judges is increased.

Suruchi

Take adequate care

When analyzing an issue, adequate care should be taken to ensure that all causes & concerns have been taken into consideration. In the case of LPG, the decision to put a cap is not in the public interest. The gas agency in connivance with some middle-men and delivery boys sell the Cylinders meant for Household use to Tea Stalls and Hotels. Can the concerned Ministry deny this? One LPG can be used only for a month by a single family having 4 members. So, why one should penalize genuine consumers also. Second, the wise decision should have been putting a complete ban on free LPG cylinders to BPL families by certain Governments. Second thing, those who are paying Income Tax of more than a fixed amount and above need not be brought under this category.

K Rajesh Kumar

Can you help?

Sir, I am regularly reading your news which is very correct, The reputed astrologer will feel shameless. Now I want your opinion. Is there any rule in Government of India where promotion can be given if seniority is disputed and pending in High Court. As if I know, only one adhoc promotion can be given. After that, there will not be any promotion. This is what my department's officers are telling. Sir, can you please help in this matter.

Dongare