Pallavi Purkayastha muder: Homeguards step forward to verify guards’ credentials

“Through the federation we want to send a message to every building society across the state that if they doubt the credentials of their society guard or are uncertain that they haven’t undergone the requisite training, they could approach us and we will get their credential verified,” Sanjay Pande, Deputy Commandant, Homeguards, told The Indian Express.

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In case of default, the agency plans to suspended licence of the security agency whose guards fail to meet the requisite conditions. According to sources, around 350 security training institutes operate in the state and many of them run their security agencies which supply security guards, mainly to housing societies and commercial establishments. “Upon receiving a query, we will check if the guard in question is trained in accordance with the requisite norms and also if his employer holds a valid licence. If he fails to meet any of the criteria prescribed under the Private Security Agency (Regulation) Act then action would be taken against the agency that deployed him,” added Pande. The housing society members could also call on the agency’s land line numbers- 02222842423/02222843600.

In a related development, the State Homeguards last week conducted surprise checks on five city based security training institutes which had applied for renewal of licence. The results were shocking and revealed that all these five agencies flouted norms prescribed under the Private Security Agency (Regulation) Act.

Sources claim that in all the five cases homeguards found that the institutes were operating through vehicles and illegally issuing certificates to security guards who could use the same to get employed at any housing society, sources said.

“The law requires them to have office spaces and a training ground but in all the five cases we found they were operating through a vehicle and did not even have an office space. When we enquired about the training grounds, many claimed they had rented grounds for training. However when we asked them to furnish rent receipts they were unable to do so and confessed that they did not hire any ground or conduct any training. We have decided not to renew the licence of these five institutes,” the source added.