New Delhi(IANS) : The burgeoning private security industry can help authorities in providing valuable intelligence inputs as well as in policing, a top home ministry official said Wednesday.
“Private securities can do a lot to help the government in not only performing security duties but also in tackling terrorism,” said Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta.
“This service industry could provide intelligence inputs through its personnel and thus help in countering terrorism. Such agencies are already working as an additional force by chipping in where the police force could not be spared,” he said speaking at a seminar, ‘Security industry on the threshold of changes’, organized by the International Institute of Security and Safety Management (IISSM).
For instance, Tuesday’s Gurgaon shooting incident in which two Class VIII students shot dead their classmate in a school complex could possibly have been averted if proper private security and trained personnel were employed, added another speaker.
Private security agencies employ more than 500,000 personnel all over the country. They have diversified from routine security to fire safety and even investigations.
The industry is now working on bomb disposal and disaster management as possible avenues for providing its services. However, lack of skills still dogs this industry, as most of the employed manpower is untrained and raw.
Gupta described the private security industry as one of the fastest growing in the service sector.
Speaking on the occasion, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) Vice Chancellor V.N. Rajshekharan Pillai said, “The university was working closely with IISSM to develop various levels of courses in security.”
These range from diploma, degree, post-graduate to even PhD programmes in security, safety, fire, investigation, intelligence, trademark infringement, intellectual property rights to industrial safety. He said plans were afoot to form a joint academic council of the IGNOU faculty and security experts to chalk out such courses.
It was felt by all speakers that there was an urgent need to train the private security personnel for handling the increasing and varied roles they are required to perform. Earmarking suitable training institutions for the purpose and adopting a practical approach in training was the need of the hour.