Centre asks CISF to be on stand-by

NEW DELHI, JULY 22: The centre and the Maharashtra government are heading for an unseemly confrontation over the issue of deployment of ad...

NEW DELHI, JULY 22: The centre and the Maharashtra government are heading for an unseemly confrontation over the issue of deployment of additional security personnel in the state. While Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh today threatened to withdraw his forces from Central Government installations, the NDA Government responded by asking para-military forces to be ready for such an eventuality.

If the Congress-NCP government does withdraw its forces, two key installations likely to be hit immediately are the Mumbai airports and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).

Worried over the chaos that would ensue if the state government withdrew its forces, the Union Civil Aviation Ministry is learnt to have apprised the Union Home Ministry to sound out the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to be on stand-by to “take over” the security of Mumbai airport and BARC, and other Central installations in the state.

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The CISF has already been inducted to oversee the security of 19 airports across the country and airports in Mumbai and New Delhi are slated to be brought under its security cover soon. But now it seems that in Mumbai at least, the para-military force will have to move in sooner than expected.

It is estimated that some 1,700 CISF personnel would be required to man the two airports in Mumbai alone. The number is likely to go up if BARC and the domestic airports at Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad have to be “taken over”.

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who was in Delhi to attend a meeting on the National Population Policy, told reporters that his government was considering the withdrawal of its state police from various Central installations, now that the Central Government had rejected their demand for additional forces. He said over five companies of the state police were deployed to man the security of the domestic and international airports in Mumbai alone and these could be withdrawn for tackling the law and order situation.

The Chief Minister has, however, got help from rather unexpected quarters. Apart from Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka (both Congress-ruled states), the BJP government in Gujarat has, surprisingly enough, acceded to his request for additional forces.

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This is obviously going to cause red faces at the Centre, which has denied the state government’s request, apparently under pressure from the Shiv Sena. “We have helped them (Gujarat) in the past so now it’s their turn to reciprocate,” was Deshmukh’s understated reply to queries as to how Gujarat agreed to send forces to the state.

Having secured help from neighbouring states, a confident Maharashtra government can now afford to cock a snook at the Centre. “We are prepared to meet any eventuality… the case against Thackeray will be carried to its logical conclusion,” he asserted. He, however, refused to set a time-frame for Thackeray’s arrest, saying that it was for the police to decide.

The CM also briefed Congress president Sonia Gandhi about the developments in the state and the government’s resolve to proceed against Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray. The party chief, in turn, is learnt to have assured him of the high command’s full support, made formal by yesterday’s Congress Working Committee meeting which endorsed the state government’s decision.