KSISF: It will be Karnataka’s answer to CISF

When it comes to security, the state government does not want to take a chance. Karnataka is raising its own elite security force on the lines of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to meet security challenges in the state, especially in the backdrop of its premier scientific institutions and infotech companies coming under terror radar.

The cabinet is expected to give its nod for the proposed Karnataka State Industrial Security Force (KSISF) on Friday, home department sources told DNA. The state government’s step assumes significance since the Centre had repeatedly turned down Karnataka’s pleas for additional battalions of the CISF to strengthen the security cover. The Centre also had advised the state to raise its own state industrial security force, if needed, a senior official in the state home ministry told DNA.

In the first phase, about 1,060 candidates would be recruited and trained for the KSISF with the help of the CISF at a cost of Rs26 crore.

The cost of personnel alone has been estimated at Rs19.67 crore. The KSISF would need vehicles and equipment and Rs5.99 crore has been earmarked for this. The KSISF would be deployed at all major dams and reservoirs, key installations such as Vidhana Soudha, Vikasa Soudha, IT and BT hubs and atomic power stations. Both the public and private sector organisations can ask for KSISF service but at a cost. The public sector clients will be charged 15% more than the cost of the force’s deployment and maintenance. For private firms, including IT companies, KSISF would charge a premium of 20%.

At present, the CISF guards Infosys’s Electronic City campus. The KSISF could step in, once the force becomes a reality. Already, Karnataka Power Corporation (KPC) has asked the state government for 5,00 KSISF personnel to keep vigil its major power installations in the state. The state home ministry has plans to build KSISF into a unit of 2,000 to 3,000 personnel in future.