New Delhi: Software giant Wipro will not get
the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) cover for its
Bangalore campus because certain demands from the company could not be met by the force.
Just before the actual deployment could take place some
time ago, CISF and the business firm could not reach a
"consensus" on the duties to be rendered by the force.
Sources said the CISF had problems in meeting the
requirements of Wipro because it went against its mandate.
The force is said to have made it clear that it would be involved in access control duties only but the company wanted it to be involved in other duties also.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, in May 2010, had
announced that a squad of 66 CISF personnel will be deployed to secure the Wipro facility and the force had also conducted a security audit of the complex.
At present, the CISF provides security cover to six
private sector concerns which include Infosys campuses at
Bangalore, Mysore and Pune, the Electronic City at Bangalore, Reliance refinery at Jamnagar and the Delhi Airport Metro Private line (Airport Express) in the national capital.
"The Wipro task could never see the light of the day
as the force found that the access control and quick reaction
response could not be performed. Both parties called off
the proposed deployment recently," sources in the CISF said.
When contacted, a Wipro Spokesperson declined to go into
the details of why the agreement could not take place between the two sides.
The spokesperson said that their Bangalore facility is
already covered by a CISF cover which secures the Electronic
City where the software giants complex is housed.
"The CISF unit deployed in Electronics City in
Bangalore provides anti-terror QRT (Quick Reaction Team)
coverage support to all the member companies of Electronics
City Industries Association (ELCIA). The Electronics City
campus of Wipro is also one of the active members of ELCIA,
hence CISF coverage is being extended to it.
"There is no question of withdrawal of any cover that
we had deployed. As always, Wipro accords the highest regard to safety and security of its employees and facilities and continues to takes optimum measures to safeguard the same," the Wipro spokesperson said.
Sources said the CISF wanted to specifically concentrate
on its access-control and QRT response in case of a terror
attack to the facility but Wipro wanted the force for
long-haul duties at the facility which included constant
deployment of CISF at other locations in its complex.
The CISF, for the first time, began providing its
specially commando-trained security cover to private sector
entities in the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks
where two luxury hotels-- the Taj and Oberoi Trident-- were
attacked by Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists.
Soon after the government amended the CISF Act in 2009
by a promulgation, a beeline of applications from various
firms requesting CISF cover flooded the Union Home Ministry.
Almost 80 applications were received by the CISF in the first
four months of the amendment of the Act.
The Infosys Bangalore complex is also located within
the Electronic city as is the Wipro facility.
PTI
