Centre terminates 3,000 CISF posts at airports

The government has abolished more than 3,000 CISF posts as part of a major security architecture overhaul at Indian airports under which non-sensitive duties will be provided by private security personnel aided by smart technology tools for surveillance and protection.

The private security personnel are being deployed at airports like in Delhi, Mumbai and others for non-sensitive duties like queue management, security assistance to airlines staff and passengers, and manning of certain entry and exit points within the terminal area.

The blueprint prepared by Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the aviation security regulator, abolishes a total of 3,049 CISF aviation security posts to be replaced by 1,924 private security personnel and a parallel introduction of smart surveillance technology like CCTV cameras and baggage scanners.

A senior CISF officer said out of the total 3,049 abolished posts from its 33,000 strong aviation security group (ASG) deployed to guard 65 civil airports at present, 1,924 will be taken up by private security personnel, while the rest 1,125 posts are being used to strengthen security at other airports which require additional manpower due to their expansion or other security needs.

A senior security officer said, “The new security architecture not only leads to generation of more than 1,900 jobs in the aviation sector, it also gives manpower boost for CISF to meet their increasing aviation security duty requirements at existing and new airports that come under their security umbrella.”

The CISF will continue to do its core task of checking passenger credentials at entry, inspecting passengers, anti-sabotage drills, secondary ladder point checks and providing an overall counter-terrorist cover to the airports on the city and air side.