The Odisha Government will set up a direct controlling mechanism to handle the private security agencies, which are mushrooming due to ever-increasing financial activities. The Government will appoint a Controlling Authority (CA) in the Department of Home for handling the regulatory mechanism for these agencies. The Controlling Authority would not only improve the regulatory system but also ensure development of the security environment for these institutions.
The Private Security Agencies Regulation (PSAR) Act, 2005 empowers the State Governments to appoint the Controlling Authorities and, accordingly, the Odisha Government would put in place such a CA soon, sources said. While earlier senior police officers were appointed as Controlling Authority of the private security agencies, now it has been decided to post senior officers serving in Department of Home as CA so that it would be in consonance with the PSAR Act.
It has been observed that some of the State Governments have appointed senior police officers as CAs, but it is not in sync with the provisions of the law, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has pointed out. The Ministry wants that this responsibility needs to be directly handled by a State Government’s Home Department. So, the appointment of CAs as per the statute at sufficiently senior level officers in the Home Department rather than entrusting the responsibility to police has been impressed upon the State Governments.
Meanwhile, the Union Government has recently formulated Model Rules of PSAR Act, namely, The Private Security Agencies (Private Security to Cash Transportation Activities) Rules. The rules have been framed to check the incidents of attacks on cash vans and risk of large volumes of cash falling into the hands of unwanted elements. The purpose of the Model Rules is to enforce safety and security requirements such as designing of the cash vehicle, number of staffs and guards to be deployed in a vehicle, checking up of their antecedents before giving them employment, proper training requirement of staffs, and how much money to be carried in a vehicle and sizes of private vaults and their operations.
The rules prescribe the operation timing for transporting cash through the cash vans.
Now, the Odisha Government would frame the rules as per PSAR Act. After the rules are framed, the State Government would give a deadline of six months to the private agencies handling cash. The Ministry of Home Affairs has requested the State Governments for early notification and enforcement of the Model Rules. This issue was reportedly raised in the Eastern Zonal Council (EZC) meeting in Bhubaneswar.
