Ryan killing: CISF offers consultancy to make schools safe

The CISF has written to schools across the country, including noted ones like KVs, DPS, Doon and Scindia, offering professional security consultancy services to ensure safe environment for children, a move that comes in the wake of the killing of a student in Gurugram.
The paramilitary, mandated as the nodal security agency to guard critical installations in the country including airports, has written dozens of letters to school authorities stating it can help create a "safe and secure" environment for school-going children which will come with a service fee.
The consultancy fee would be around Rs 4 lakh for an average school.

The trigger for this all-India exercise by the Central Industrial Security Force is the recent incident of killing of aClass 2 student of the Ryan International School in Gurugram who was found dead in the school bathroom with his throat slit by a sharp-edged weapon on the morning of September 8.
"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 one of the school principals read.

Among those who have been sent the offer letter include the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, the Delhi Public School Society, the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, Springdales, Salwan Education Trust, Modern School, Sanskriti, Mother's International, Shri Ram and Appejay Education Society in Delhi.

The force has even approached the Ryan Group of Schools in Mumbai, the Doon School in Dehradun, Scindia School in Gwalior and Rishi Valley in Chitoor in Andhra Pradesh even as many more such letters are being dispatched.
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 safety to the school-going children. About 200 institutions of national repute are our satisfied clients under this umbrella," he told PTI.

The force that works under the command of the Union home ministry has conducted similar securityconsultancy for the Dhirubhai Ambani International school in Mumbai and has similarly audited a number of Indian Institutes of Management (IIsM) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IIsT).
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 few days back, 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 auditedand handover 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.
The security consultancy wing in the 1969 raised force was created in 1999 and it has an elite team of 130 expert officials.