Govt ropes in CISF for security of Parliament complex

The government has decided to hand over the ”comprehensive” security of the Parliament building complex to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) in the wake of the recent breach of the safety ring, official sources said Thursday.

The CISF is a central armed police force (CAPF) that currently guards many central government ministry buildings in Delhi apart from installations in the nuclear and aerospace domain, civil airports and the Delhi Metro.

The sources told PTI that the Union home ministry on Wednesday directed for a survey of the Parliament building complex so that a ”regular deployment of the CISF security and fire wing on a comprehensive pattern” could be done.

Experts drawn from the government building security (GBS) unit of the CISF, that guards central government ministries, and fire combat and response officers of the force along with officials from the current Parliament security team will undertake the survey beginning later this week.

Both the new and the old Parliament complex and their allied buildings will be brought under a comprehensive security cover of the CISF which will also have the existing elements of Parliament Security Service (PSS), the Delhi Police and the Parliament Duty Group (PDG) of the CRPF, the sources said.

In a major security breach on the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament terror attack on December 13, two persons jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery during Zero Hour, released yellow smoke from canisters and shouted slogans before being overpowered by the MPs.

Around the same time, two others sprayed coloured smoke from canisters while shouting slogans outside the Parliament premises.

A committee under the chairmanship of CRPF director general Anish Dayal Singh is looking into the overall security issues of the Parliament complex and will make recommendations to the Union home ministry for improvement.