'Govt fine tuning grievance redressal mechanism at airports'

NEW DELHI: In the wake of a scuffle between AAI and CISF officials that had led to the death of a security personnel at the Calicut airport last month, the government is taking various steps, including monitoring of security functioning by senior officials, to prevent such incidents in the future.
Besides, the government is fine tuning the mechanism for redressal of grievances and complaints, minister of state for civil aviation Mahesh Sharma informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
There was a scuffle between some employees of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at Calicut airport on the night of June 10 in which one CISF head constable died due to a bullet injury.
Following the incident, a "section of the CISF personnel went on a rampage, damaging the runway lights and other aerodrome grounds besides assaulting some of the officials of AAI.
"Kerala police has registered four cases and has arrested 14 officials of AAI and 13 personnel of CISF," Sharma said in a written reply.
To prevent such incidents in the future, he said that various steps are being taken including "installation of adequate number of CCTV cameras and identification and rectification of blind spots in its coverage".
Other measures are initiation of confidence building measures, fine tuning of mechanism for redressal of grievances and complaints, monitoring of security functioning by senior level officers of BCAS (Bureau of Civil Aviation Security), CISF and AAI.
In addition, provisions of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued by BCAS for induction of CISF at airports were reiterated to bring clarity of roles, Sharma said.
The Minister also said that directions to hold regular need-based as well as the mandatory monthly meetings of Airport Security Committee have been reiterated to "create harmony amongst the various agencies in airports for smooth operations of air services".
According to Sharma, suitable directions have been issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to strengthen customer service skills at airports for having a passenger-friendly approach.
Among others, "CISF personnel are also sensitised towards courteous and polite behaviour with passengers," he added.