Amit Shah pitches for welfare schemes for private security guards

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday asked operators of private security agencies to undertake welfare initiatives like health insurance, medical health check-up and pension for private guards by taking advantage of government-sponsored schemes.

Shah also asked private security agencies to hire NCC trained guards so that those employed have some basic training on security. Launching a private security agency licensing portal initiated by the Ministry of Home Affairs, he said agencies must ensure that each and every private security guard has a 'Jan Dhan' bank account for salary disbursement and there should be no cash transactions with them.

The home minister said there are around 90 lakh private security guards in the country while the total number of police and paramilitary forces is around 30 lakh. That means, there are 24 per cent police and 76 per cent private security guards, he said.

"You should undertake some welfare schemes like regular health check-up of private security guards. You should enrol them under the government-sponsored Rs 2 lakh insurance scheme (Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana) and pay the yearly premium of Rs 22 for each guard. The government will pay rest of the amount of Rs 350. "Similarly, you should also make arrangement so that each private guard comes under the cover of Atal Pension Yojana (a government back scheme)," he said.