Home Ministry has provided a fresh list of three candidates for appointment to the post of civil aviation security agency BCAS chief, which has been lying vacant for over three years, Union Minister Mahesh Sharma said today.
The post of Commissioner of Security (Civil Aviation) at the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has been lying vacant since November 2012.
"A fresh panel of suitable officers was requested from the Ministry of Home Affairs and based on the request of Ministry of Civil Aviation, MHA has provided a panel of three IPS officers (on March 11, 2016) for the post of Commissioner of Security (Civil Aviation) in the BCAS," Sharma said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
The Minister of State for Civil Aviation said the competent authority had decided to seek the fresh panel of officers after considering the earlier panels provided by the Home Ministry.
"The civil aviation security is paramount for India. Accordingly, the Joint Commissioner of Security (Civil Aviation) had been handling the additional charge of the post of Commissioner of Security (Civil Aviation), BCAS," the Minister said.
The Bureau was set up in 1978 as part of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in the wake of the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane to Lahore in September 1976.
Later it was upgraded as an independent body after the 1985 bombing of the Air India Boeing 747 Kanishka plane.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) carries out periodic audits of member countries and assesses implementation of norms/standards prescribed by them, Sharma added.
In such an audit carried out recently, ICAO observed very high degree of compliance to its standards by India, he said.
