■ By Neelabh Srivastava :
NEW DELHI
MORE than 3,300 CISF personnel will take over the complete counterterrorism and
anti-sabotage security duties
at the Parliament complex
from Monday following the
withdrawal of over 1,400 CRPF
(Central Reserve Police Force)
staff from the country’s most
important symbol of democracy, official sources said.
The Parliament Duty Group
(PDG) of the CRPF wound up
its entire administrative and
operational paraphernalia --
vehicles, weapons and commandos -- from of the complex on Friday and its commander, a Deputy Inspector
General (DIG)-rank officer,
handed over all the security
points in the complex to the
incoming CISF group, the
sources said.
A total of 3,317 Central
Industrial Security Force
(CISF) personnel are being
inducted for securing both
the old and new Parliament
buildings and the associated
structures in this complex
located in central Delhi after
the Government directed it
to take over the task from the
CRPF following the December
13 security breach incident of
last year, a senior officer told
PTI.
In a major security breach
on the anniversary of the 2001
Parliament terror attack, two
persons jumped into the Lok
Sabha chamber from the public gallery during Zero Hour
on December 13, 2023,
released yellow smoke from
canisters and shouted slogans
before being overpowered by
MPs. Outside the Parliament
premises around the same
time that day, two other persons sprayed coloured smoke
from canisters while shouting
slogans. Following this incident, a committee under the chairmanship of CRPF DG was setup to look into the overall security issues of the Parliament complex and make suitable recommendations. The CISF counterterrorism security unit will take over the full charge of the Parliament complex from 6 AM on Monday, May 20, the officer said, requesting anonymity. It has deployed its staff to guard all the flap entry gates of the complex, posted canine squads, fire fighting personnel along with fire tenders, manpower at CCTV monitoring control room and communication centre apart from the pass section, watch towers apart from specialists to undertake anti-sabotage checks and other operations at the Parliament complex, he said. With this, the CRPF PDG, Delhi Police (about 150 personnel) and the parliament security staff (PSS) who jointly secured the Parliament till now, stand withdrawn, a senior CISF officer said.
He said the CISF personnel have been undertaking familiarisation exercise of the complex for the last 10 days and the men and women personnel of the force who will man reception areas have been given light blue full sleeved shirts and brown pants apart from safari suits as their new uniform. The first officer quoted above added that the PDG unit is expected to be merged with the six battalion strong VIP security wing of the CRPF, while the PSS staff could be tasked afresh for rendering security and protocol duties at other central Government installations. Some PSS staff could be retained for manning the lobbies of the house for marshal duties but a final decision is yet to be taken, he said. The CISF contingent, according to sources, has been deployed on a temporary manner called the‘internal security duty pattern’ and it is expected that it will be granted a full-fledged sanction as new Government assumes office after the ongoing general elections, sources said. The CISF personnel have been imparted refresher training in baggage screening, personal frisking, bomb detection and disposal, quick reaction terrorist counter, sniper task and public interaction and courtesy before being sent for the Parliament duty.
They have also trained recently with the ‘black cat’ commandos of the National Security Guard (NSG) who were air-dropped from an IAF helicopter on the new Parliament complex to simulate a terrorist attack, the sources said. A CRPF officer said PDG troops who left the Parliament complex on May 17 clicked selfies and took photographs as a token of remembrance of“efficiently” guarding the country’s highest temple of democracy. “During the 2001 terrorist attack, CRPF personnel showed extreme bravery alongwith personnel from other agencies to defeat the dastardly assault with one personnel laying down her life in the line of duty while some others receiving gallantry medals and in 2023 they were not responsible for the breach that took place.”