MUMBAI: Taking a leaf out of the failures in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks, the Maharashtra government has woken up to the shortcomings in the security aspects and has decided to set up a specialized security force.
State Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, sarcastically referred in the political circles as a stop-gap chief minister, said here yesterday that the state government will raise a specialized unit on the pattern of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) which would protect industrial establishments, government undertakings, and business entities.
Chavan who also made similar announcement at the chief ministers’ conference in New Delhi recently, stated that to enhance the security arrangements in the state, especially in public places, the Maharashtra government has taken a decision to raise State Industrial Security Force (SISF) on the lines of the CISF.
The SISF, Chavan said, would overlook the security in public places including five-star hotels, shopping malls, religious places, theaters and areas where people assemble in large numbers.
As the state government was criticized for intelligence failure, Chavan said that regular meetings would be conducted between various intelligence agencies and information would be shared.
A special cyber monitoring cell would also be established for effective exchange of intelligence information. The chief minister also disclosed that 33,000 police personnel would shortly be recruited to further strengthen the police force.
In another development, the dissident Congress party leader and former Revenue Minister Narayan Rane has turned down the offer of presidential post of the Republican Party of India (Athavale faction) made by RPI (A) president Ramdas Athavale a few days ago.
A close aide of Rane told Arab News yesterday, that Rane had made it clear that he had no intention of quitting the Congress and joining any other party or forming his own party.
In a double speak talk with the media, last week, Athavale had said that he was going to meet Rane shortly and invite him to join the RPI (A). “By bringing non-Dalit (backward class Hindus) like Rane into the party fold, we want to realize dreams of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, founder of the original RPI,” Athavale had said.
