Airport security check time to be halved for fliers: CISF

In order to enhance passenger comfort, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has decided to cut security checks and frisking time at the airports to almost half of the present time taken.

The force has prepared a four-point new standard operating procedure for its security personnel who are deployed at the country’s 59 civil airports to frisk and identify genuine travelling passengers and scan suspect baggage.

“We have decided to cut the security check time for air fliers at airports by half. At present, our officials take 7-8 minutes to complete the frisking and identification of passengers but now we plan to cut it down by half to about 4 minutes,” Chief of CISF airport security unit O P Singh told PTI.

Singh said new modules and SOPs have been developed to enable the CISF security men achieve this target.

“We have initiated a new profiling mechanism by which the security person intelligently identifies between a genuine and a fake or suspect passenger. Once that is done, the security personnel are being trained to quickly go through three details in the air ticket which is checking the correct flight number, date, time and the valid I-card of the passenger,” Additional Director General (CISF) Singh said.

Authorities of the force are particularly driven to undertake such measures after a latest survey they conducted among passengers at Indian airports found out that extended waiting time for security checks was troubling maximum number of air fliers in the country.

Source: http://indianexpress.com/article/business/companies/airport-security-check-time-to-be-halved-for-fliers-cisf/

Maoist Attacks: How Many Jawan's Deaths Will be ‘TOO MANY’ for govt?

The Maoists in Chhattisgarh have added yet another number to their list of killings. This time, the toll is 16. In 2005, they had killed 55 cops in Bijapur, 76 CRPF jawans in 2010 and 30 people including senior Congress leaders of the state on 25 May, 2013. 
How many more innocent people and security personnel need to die for the government to wake up from its deep slumber and put an end to the red terror? What is the number that will finally force the government to do something about this? 
The writing on the wall had become clear on the very day when the first phase of assembly polls in Chhattisgarh had got over on 11 November, 2013, registering a record turnout of 75 percent. 

When will the government finally crack down on Maoist terror? AFP Ignoring the threats from the Maoists to boycott the polls, the voters in south Bastar – a Maoist stronghold – had come out in large numbers to exercise their right to vote for a change. It was then that the intelligence agencies had warned the state government of possible attacks by the Maoist cadre as an act of revenge, both on the security forces and the tribal villagers. 
A month before the country goes to the Lok Sabha polls, the Left-Wing Extremists again unleashed a reign of terror on 11 March – the deadliest strike Chhattisgarh has witnessed since the rebels wiped out almost the entire top Congress leadership at Darbha Ghati in May last year. The recent dastardly act again underscored the government’s failure in learning any lesson from previous attacks. The Centre’s strategy to scale up operations against the Maoists ahead of the Lok Sabha elections has faced a major setback. Post the attack, lip service is in full swing. 
The union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and the Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh have both reiterated, “Naxal movement has to be dealt with ruthlessly and we’ll do it...Our battle against the Maoists will continue”. Why do we repeatedly fail to respond to an intelligence alert? Why does the State continue to remain helpless in front of some thousand-odd rebels? What goes wrong every time, allowing the Maoists to wipe out so many young lives, leaving the government with no option but to pay tributes to the coffins of the deceased? 
There are many Naxal sympathisers, who question an encounter, but why doesn’t any activist come forward to question the government on the rampant killing of security personnel and poor tribals? “Everything is wrong in tackling the Naxal menace. From policy formulation to its implementation, nothing is right,” says former director general, Border Security Force, and member National Security Advisory Board, Prakash Singh. Immediately after the massacre of Congress leaders by the Maoists in 2013, prime minister Manmohan Singh had called for a two-pronged strategy to deal with Left Wing Extremism. 
To strengthen counter-terrorism efforts and address development issues simultaneously. But Prakash Singh adds, “Nothing is clear on the strategy front. There are differences in perception between the Centre and the Naxal-hit states.” Internal security experts believe that the need of the hour is to bring greater focus on improving the capability of state police rather than mindlessly raising the central armed police forces to combat Maoist violence. But, in a large number of cases, local police have been found to be ill-equipped to deal with insurgent operations. “Local police is the best, both for combating and gathering intelligence, but the state government needs to ensure its standard,” says Singh. As the dead don’t respond to allegations, Shinde was quick to say that there were lapses on part of the security forces while following standard operating procedures (SoP), after visiting Chhattisgarh to pay tribute to the killed security personnel. 
The security forces have even been blamed of failing to take note of the intelligence inputs from both the central and state agencies regarding the movement of Maoists in the area. If that really has been the case, then why have the state and police leaderships never been questioned, one wonders. The dead are always left with the additional burden of taking the blame for their own killings. “Rampant corruption in the state government as well as in the police administration and lack of commitment lead to failures in dealing with such grave situations in a war zone,” observes Singh. 
The state’s counter terrorism policies have been based principally on political posturing and not on objective, or considerations of strategy and response. “Though there is deployment of security forces in the Maoist hotbed, giving a sense of safety and security, the fact is that their hands are tied,” says a former top cop of Chhattisgarh on condition of anonymity. Within the police administration there is severe discontent among the field staff stationed at insurgency-hit locations, which has arisen due to apathy of senior officials. That’s the case in other insurgency-hit states as well. “After all, who cares if the jawans live or die? This is often the attitude of top officials,” laments Singh. Clearly, nobody seems to be bothered.

SOP violation allowed if anti-Naxal ops demand: CRPF DG

New Delhi: The CRPF top boss Thursday said he has asked his troops deployed in anti-Naxal operations to even go to the extent of "violating" the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) if such a diversion in rules is required for operational efficiency and safety of the men.

Dismissing suggestions that there was a contravention of set SOPs by his personnel during the March 11 Naxal ambush in Chhattiagarh's Sukma which killed 11 CRPF men and four others, CRPF Director General Dilip Trivedi told PTI that the incident will not deter the paramilitary, and the paramilitary force will be more "steadfast" in deploying their operational tactics in beating the Naxals.

"The top brass of the force cannot take away the initiative of the field commander. The commander on ground has to deploy his hunch and instinct while he is out in an operational area. I have told them that you can even violate the SOPs, provided that is in the interest of the operations and safety of troops," Trivedi said, a day after he returned to the national capital after touring the ambush area in south Bastar's Tongpal for an on-spot assessment.

He said the SOPs, in an operational area, are meant to be flexible keeping in mind the emerging and immediate threat and dynamic activity on the ground.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) chief said the force headquarters has issued some fresh directives to commanders while operating in the Naxal affected areas.

"I will not go into the details of our operational tactics but yes we have told our men and officers that we should break the monotonous drills while rendering routine duties like that of road opening and frequently visiting an area.

"We have told them to keep flexibility in their operations so that their movement remains unknown till the last moment," the DG said.

Terming the latest ambush a "planned attack" by close to 200 Naxals, Trivedi said the Naxals used an assortment of looted police weapons like LMGs and SLRs to inflict causalities on the 45-personnel strong joint forces squad which was out early morning on Tuesday in one the most notorious Maoist violence affected areas of the state, which is in the 'Jeeram Ghati' area.

This is the same place where the ultras had killed the top leadership of state Congress last year in May.

Source: zeenews india 13/03/2014