New Delhi: The CISF contingent guarding the Central Government Offices (CGO) complex housing offices of security and intelligence organisations in the capital has been withdrawn.
The complex has been stripped off the security of the central paramilitary which was in place since 2007.
"There are no guards to regulate entry into the complex from today," an official working in the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) said.
Sources said the CISF has been asked by the Union Home Ministry to withdraw its contingent of about 80 personnel from the complex from the midnight of August 31.
The personnel will soon dismantle the security infrastructure used at the four entry gates of the complex.
The CISF has been guarding the facility against possible terror attacks since the last few years. A special CISF squad was always kept armed at the CGO complex in order to respond to any terror attack or emergency at the facility.
The new arrangement, according to sources, is to either have private security guards secure the complex or get it regulated by the Delhi police.
The development has raised eyebrows amongst those working within the complex as the campus houses offices like those of the National Informatics Centre (NIC), DRI and headquarters of paramilitary forces like CRPF, ITBP, BSF, CISF itself and a host of offices of ministries like the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Ministry of Health.
The CISF, on its part, has notified the Delhi Police and the offices in the complex that it is withdrawing its security personnel from the complex and it would now be the responsibility of local police and respective organisations to guard their premises.
Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah, whose ministry is within this complex, has said that he will take up the issue of replacing CISF security with Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde.
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) was deployed for securing the complex in 2007 after some arms and ammunition were illegally taken into the BSF headquarters.
The CISF separately guards three offices present inside CGO-- `Paryavaran bhawan`, office of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, ministry of New and Renewable Energy and police wireless.
PTI
