Transit grouse
15 Oct 2014 11:06 PM GMT
The Indira Gandhi International Airport in the capital doesn’t have a bomb disposal squad within its precincts. This means that in the wake of a ticking bomb waiting to be detonated, there is no mechanism that will be able to ensure security of the many fliers, domestic as well as international that throng the airport daily. The extent of the Central Industrial Security Force’s antipathy is such that the building which housed the bomb disposal squad for the past 15 years has now been allotted as a residence to a CISF DIG.
The bomb disposal squad which was earlier at a distance of five minutes is now housed at the CISF’s Mahipalpur Lines at a distance of 20 minutes from the airport. It will be interesting to note how the paramilitary force, which provides security to important installations like the airports and the Delhi Metro will defend this decision when uncomfortable questions will be put across? It becomes pertinent for the security agency to not only answer them but also provide taxpaying citizens of the country all explanations, at whose largesse such installations are maintained. IGI is one of the many airports around the world which face constant threat and remain a high point on the radar of terrorist agencies. Fallible standards can be gauged from the fact that India’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Hyderabad and Delhi’s IGI Airport are lodged at the 65th and 69th spot respectively.
The world rankings which are accorded on the basis of every parameter including safety should indeed be taken seriously by the concerned authorities. IGI was the country’s biggest and busiest airport with air traffic of more than 36 million in 2013. With so many or perhaps more passengers it indeed is the CISF’s moral responsibility to protect them from any kind of untoward incident. If it is able to good, but if it is not then questions are bound to be raised and it will have to answer them in the spirit of truth.
The bomb disposal squad which was earlier at a distance of five minutes is now housed at the CISF’s Mahipalpur Lines at a distance of 20 minutes from the airport. It will be interesting to note how the paramilitary force, which provides security to important installations like the airports and the Delhi Metro will defend this decision when uncomfortable questions will be put across? It becomes pertinent for the security agency to not only answer them but also provide taxpaying citizens of the country all explanations, at whose largesse such installations are maintained. IGI is one of the many airports around the world which face constant threat and remain a high point on the radar of terrorist agencies. Fallible standards can be gauged from the fact that India’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Hyderabad and Delhi’s IGI Airport are lodged at the 65th and 69th spot respectively.
The world rankings which are accorded on the basis of every parameter including safety should indeed be taken seriously by the concerned authorities. IGI was the country’s biggest and busiest airport with air traffic of more than 36 million in 2013. With so many or perhaps more passengers it indeed is the CISF’s moral responsibility to protect them from any kind of untoward incident. If it is able to good, but if it is not then questions are bound to be raised and it will have to answer them in the spirit of truth.
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