Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday attended the 53rd Raising Day ceremony of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at Ghaziabad's Indirapuram.
The Union Home Minister also inspected the parade of the force. While attending the 53rd Raising Day ceremony of CISF, Amit Shah thanked Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) for being the 'Karamyogi' of the country and said that the forces warmly welcomed Indians returning from abroad through different evacuation operations.
Amit Shah lauded the role of the force during different evacuation operations and said, "During the coronavirus pandemic when Indians were coming back from abroad, CISF personnel took risks in taking care of fellow Indians and even lost their lives."
"They've been taking care of returning citizens from Ukraine under Operation Ganga too," he added.
The Union Home Minister then said that India's journey towards a 2.5 trillion dollars economy was impossible without the force.
"Looking at the 52 years of CISF's work, I can say with surety that its 53rd year is an important day for the country's industrial growth too," he said.
Amit Shah said private security agencies and central government's paramilitary force CISF could join hands for providing effective security to various private industrial and manufacturing sector units.
This was important, he said, as government security agencies like the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) cannot alone render this task across the country and could gradually "handover" them to private security agencies.
He also asked the force to prepare a 25-year road map so that it could emerge as a "result-oriented" security agency by the time India enters the 100th year of its Independence.
The Home Minister also asked the CISF to consider taking the responsibility of training private security agencies.
Keeping in view the "increasing" drone threat to industrial units along sea ports and the land border, the minister asked the CISF to collaborate with agencies like the DRDO and Border Security Force to prepare an effective counter technology against this menace.
Speaking at the event, CISF Director General (DG) Sheel Vardhan Singh said the force can play a big and important role in training and certification of private security agencies in the country which were currently functioning in an unorganised manner.
He said the force was ready to play the role of a "specialist and integrated" security agency in the airport and seaport cargo, counter-drone, marine and rapid transport system domain.
The about 1.64 lakh personnel strong CISF guards 65 civil airports of the country at present apart from securing a number of vital infrastructure in the government and private domain. It functions under the control of the Union Home Ministry.
The CISF is a central armed police force of the country and is among one of the six paramilitary forces of India. It functions under the Union Home Ministry.
The CISF was set up under the act of the Parliament of India on March 10, 1969. Since then, CISF Raising Day is being celebrated on March 10 each year.
(With inputs from Agencies)
