Hyderabad: The murder of a Pune Infosys employee has raised safety concerns in Hyderabad IT companies. Cyberabad police sources say that many IT companies and security agencies have not been doing proper background checks of security guards. Though security agencies are paid huge sums by IT firms the agencies pay the guards very little. Most of the guards are not given proper training or orientation courses.
“There are some security firms that do a good job by properly vetting employees before deployment. But, there are some black sheep among security agencies, who do not follow rules or vet their employees,” Cyberabad police commissioner Sandip Shandilya said. As per rules, when a security firm hires employees, the candidate has to submit a no objection certificate (NoC) from the police station at his native place. The local police has to thoroughly check the background of the candidate. Only after this the candidate should be hired.
“However, few companies follow these procedures. Most guards are hired in haste and criminals get in,” said a Cyberabad police official. Earlier, Cyberabad police had conducted training sessions for security firms. Now, formal training sessions have been shelved. “Now we meet senior managers of security firms once in three months. We have strictly asked them to vet everyone they recruit,” said police commissioner Sandip Shandilya.
Many women employees often complain about continuous ogling and obscene comments by security guards. “The guards are changed every month in the building we work. There are some among them who ogle at all times. Some even take the liberty to talk about the way we dress and walk. I had complained to my HR department against one of them and got him removed,” said G. Sadhya, a techie, who works in an MNC in Madhapur.
