CISF unanimous choice for Madras High Court security

Chennai: On January 29, 1964 a devastating fire wrecked Heavy Engineering Corporation, Ranchi. Over Rs 40 lakh work machineries and properties were destroyed in the biggest industrial disaster in the country in the ’60s.

Soon communal violence broke out in Ranchi, which spread to other industrial hub Rourkela and Jamshedpur and work in public sectors in the places came to a grinding halt. Security forces faced the people ire.

Subsequently, government appointed a judicial commission headed by Justice B. Mukerjee, which recommended the creation of an exclusive force for public sector industries. Justice Mukerjee had identified that the fire broke out due to sabotage.

In the preceding years, as the nation was marching ahead in the industrial sector, the management faced labour unrest in several parts of the country. In the late ’50s and early ’60s steel, engineering, mines, chemical, oil and industrial sectors faced the heat and sought the assistance of the central government to contain the disorder.

In 1961, the Central Government appointed retired Judge S.M. Dutt as security advisor to study and report on various security arrangements in public sectors. He recommended the setting up of an exclusive security force for public sectors as there was lack of competent and qualified security officers. Dutt recommended a separate industrial force which would comprise professionally trained and disciplined personnel.

The Central Industrial Security Force Act, 1968, came into force on March 10, 1969. Since its inception, the CISF has come a long way. The officers undergo rigorous training at National Industrial Security Academy in Hyderabad and constables were trained in six regional training centres in various states. For providing special security at Airport since 2000, CISF set up Regional Training Centre, Arakkonam.

They are stationed at 59 major airports and these personnel recovered property worth more than Rs 100 crore and the valuables were returned to the owners.

CISF has been engaged in constant up gradation of training skills, equipments and modern gadgets, use of state of art technology, CISF has evolved as a highly professional and tech-savvy force in the government run force. CISF has been deployed in Indian Embassy in Nepal and as Formed Police unit in Haiti. Since, 2006, CISF has been providing security cover to 35 VIPs. A consultancy wing, which was established in 1999, has been providing consultancy services to 84 government and private sectors.