CISF to Take over PSS Duty, MHA Sets up 7 Members Committee to Re-Survey Parliament House Complex

At least 3,200 security personnel have taken charge of different security services in the Parliament Complex in the last five months. However, the Union Home Ministry in an official communication has recently said that Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) DIG Ajay Kumar will coordinate with other members of a joint survey team and furnish a report on security requirements at the earliest, writes ETV Bharat’s Gautam Debroy.

New Delhi:In the latest development related to the security in and around Parliament premises, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has set up a seven members joint survey team to conduct a re-survey of the Parliament House Complex to deploy additional CISF personnel for taking over duties of Parliament Security Service (PSS).

However, in the last five months, more than 3,200 CISF personnel have been deployed for the Parliament security and other emergency services replacing the Delhi police. According to sources,“Communication, anti-sabotage, command and control wing, as well as dog squad, are also getting replaced by CISF,” sources said.

In a letter issued last week by deputy secretary to Government of India CS Thakur, DIG CISF Ajay Kumar has been appointed as the chairman of the team with the responsibility to coordinate with the other members of the joint survey team and furnish a report on security requirements at the earliest.

According to the letter, a copy of which is with ETV Bharat, the team will scrutinise and examine the proposal of taking over all 16 duties of PSS, including access regulations for MPs, VIPs, senior government functionaries, staff at the iron gates, building gates and Talkatora gates, regulation and coordination of VIP movement inside the complex, access control in the lobbies and galleries, inside public galleries-movement regulations and discipline, coordination with other security agencies, rehearsal of drills, security arrangements during the presidential address and other functions among others.

Apart from DIG Kumar, other members of the team include Amandeep Singh Dhaliwal, commandant CISF; Brij Raj, deputy commandant in CISF; Narendra Singh, 2IC/SSF, MHA; one representative each from IB, Delhi Police and Parliament Security.

Aware of the development, the Rajya Sabha Secretariat Employees’ Association (RSSEA) and Lok Sabha Secretariat Employees’ Association (LSSEA) have taken up the matter with the Secretary-General of both the Houses.

Following an executive council meeting on Friday over the issue, the RSSEA sent a letter to Secretary-General Pramod Chandra Mody stating that because of the possible divesting of their role, they are apprehensive about their service and service conditions in the future.

“This has put them into a deep sense of frustration and confusion. Without going into the merits of such a proposal about replacing the PSS, whose functions inter-alia include the delicate task of facilitating the MPs and other dignitaries in the Parliament House Complex, with a paramilitary force, the primary concern of the association is to safeguard the service and service conditions of the PSS,” the RSSEA wrote in the letter.

It is worth mentioning that ever since the breach of security incident took place inside the Parliament House last year, the Home Ministry has been exploring options to ensure more security to the premises of Parliament House.

Following directives from the Lok Sabha Speaker, the Home Ministry has also set up a committee headed by a senior CRPF official to look into the incident where two intruders named Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D, entered the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery and jumped onto the tables from the public gallery and released a yellow-coloured smoke canister.