Infosys, Wipro get CISF cover

The Reliance industries-owned Jamnagar oil refinery, information technology (IT) leaders Infosys and Wipro, and the Electronic City — a hub of IT companies in Bangalore — would be among the first private establishments to get security cover from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).

Sources said CISF had finalised agreement for security and fire control consultancy services with these companies on a cost-reimbursement basis. “We would be working out plans of deployment at the premises of these companies very shortly,’’ CISF sources said.

These companies are among 57 private businesses which had sought the CISF cover and 24 others which had been short-listed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for consideration, in the wake of concerns about vulnerability of the private sector after the attack on Mumbai’s Taj Mahal and Trident hotels by Pakistani-terrorists in November.

Companies like Essar Oil and even the Reliance Industries-owned refinery at Kakinada; leading hotels like Taj, Marriott, Leela and Trident, several educational institutions and media companies had all sought CISF cover, even before Parliament had passed legislation extending the ambit to private companies.

So far, CISF had been providing cover to public sector undertakings, government buildings and offices and key installations like nuclear power plants and reactors. CISF is the only arm of the government that works on a cost-reimbursement basis and, therefore, is not a burden on taxpayers. “The decision to give security to private businesses would be linked only with the threat perception and not the size of the company,’’ senior CISF authorities told Business Standard.

It was an SOS request from Infosys, Wipro and Reliance Industries to the government on CISF cover that had initiated the process for enactment of the Central Industrial Security Force (Amendment) Act, 2009, that authorised CISF cover for the private businesses.

CISF, meanwhile, has increased its consultancy fee nearly four times, from the earlier range of Rs 50,000 to 1.5 lakh. CISF has recently also asked its clients to pay additional 10.3 per cent consultancy fees, in view of the finance ministry’s decision that the paramilitary force must pay service tax like any other service provider.