The central paramilitary force, mandated to provide security to critical installations including airports, national monuments and government buildings, has told the schools it can help create “safe and secure” environment for children, with a consultancy service fee of Rs 4 lakh for an average school.
The schools approached in Delhi NCR include Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, the Delhi Public School Society, the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Springdales School Pusa Road, Salwan Education Trust, President of DAV College Managing Committee, Modern School Barakhamba, Tagore International, Ramjas Foundation, Sanskriti, Birla Vidya Niketan, Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, The Mothers International, Shri Ram School, Ahlcon International and Apeejay Education Society.
Subsequently, CISF has offered its services to Ryan Group of Schools, Mumbai; Podar Education Group in Mumbai; Doon School and Aditya Birla Management Corporation in Dehradun; Scindia School Gwalior and Rishi Valley in Chittoor.
CISF has provided in past security consultancy services to prestigious educational institutions like IITs, IIMs, NITs, Dhirubhai Ambani International School etc.
CISF writing to schools comes in the wake of the brutal murder of Thakur at Ryan School, Gurugram on September 8, in which CBI has arrested a Class 11 student.
“It is felt that in the wake of the recent unfortunate incident in one of the reputed schools in the national capital region (NCR) in which a young student lost his life, there is now a need for revisiting the security infrastructure of our schools. You will agree that a healthy and secure environment is a right of every child and schools have a major role to play in the providing the same,” the CISF letter addressed to school principals read.
CISF Director General O P Singh said the force took the initiative as part of its responsibility towards society.
“We are the best-suited government agency for doing such expert security consultancies and in preparing safe environments. We need to ensure the safety of the school-going children. About 200 institutions of national repute are our satisfied clients under this umbrella,” he said.
The force has assured the schools that its professional but chargeable security solutions will be custom-made for them like it does for each of its clients.
“We firmly believe that out consultancy will assist in finalising the blue print for effective security and fire protection of your esteemed educational institutions,” the CISF has told the schools.
It said that its security audit report will “cover aspects related to integrated security solutions, student and faculty protection and any specific requirement put forth by them.”
A senior officer of the force said after the first set of offer letters were dispatched a few days ago, three reputed schools from Delhi have already approached them with a positive word.
The official said the CISF security consultancy, used by Infosys, Reliance, the Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) and AIIMS among others, will cost one-fourth as what is charged by some private players in this domain.
“So, for an average school that we are talking about, an amount of about Rs 4-4.5 lakh would be incurred as the CISF consultancy fee. The private players charge as much as Rs 20 lakh for the same job,” he said.
He said once the client agrees for the consultancy, a team of CISF experts from its special unit visit the premises that is to be audited and hand over the final report from a time period ranging between 3-4 months.
The report tells the client where to install CCTV cameras, where to deploy security staff, how to check access control, how to train their security staff and install emergency response gadgets.
“The effort is to make the security system professional and competent. The security consultancy is also added with the fire audit where anti-blaze and counter-fire measures are suggested,” he said.
Source : timesofindia
