The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) will streamline airport security checks for differently abled people, officials have said, after interacting with activists to understand the issues faced by them.
Senior officers held a workshop with airport security officers and NGO members to sensitise airport personnel to help physically challenged people during check-in and security checks. Officials said they invited 10 representatives of leading NGOs and interacted with them over the issues faced by differently abled people, especially during frisking. The meeting was headed by M Ganapathy, Director General (CISF). It was virtually attended by over 64 Chief Airport Security Officers and hundreds of activists.
“We want to standardise a process while dealing with differently abled people across all airports that are under CISF security. We spoke to NGO members to discuss the problems that they face and how we can help at the airports. At present, we are following guidelines set by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS),” said Dr Anil Pandey, Deputy Inspector General, CISF.
The current guidelines were set after the Daallo Airlines blast in 2016 in Somalia. A wheel-chair bound person allegedly carried the bomb that exploded 20 minutes after the take-off. “All the guidelines were then set with keeping wheelchairs, prosthetics and other equipment in mind so that nobody could evade security checks. We explained the guidelines to the NGO members and took their feedback. We want to keep airport travel hassle-free for everyone,” said Pandey
