NEW DELHI: Yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Food and Herbal Park in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, will have a security cover of armed Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) commandos. The park, spread across an area of around 95 acres, will be the eighth private installation assigned to the CISF, which is already guarding Electronics City Bengaluru; Infosys campuses in Bengaluru, Mysore and Pune; Reliance Refinery and Petrochemicals in Jamnagar and Coastal Gujarat Power project executed by the Tata Group in Mundra and the Tata Steel project based in Odisha’s Kalinganagar.
CISF boss Surender Singh said the paramilitary force had recently received the government’s order and 35 armed men would be deployed at the park. The client will bear the entire cost of the deployment. A unit of 35 CISF commandos were deployed at the food park last year as temporary security arrangements due to some protests, but after the fresh orders they will be deployed round the clock.
“A security audit conducted by the government noted security threat as the food park was visited by foreign and domestic tourists. Moreover, the protest and subsequent law and order crisis in June clearly suggest enhanced security apparatus is required for the Patanjali Food and Herbal Park,” A CISF officer said.
On being asked why CISF security was given to a private entity, the officer said the unit’s products and services were “vital to the country’s economic security as well as growth in that particular sector”. He also argued that the client, Patanjali Food and Herbal Park Private Ltd, would bear the entire cost of CISF commandos’ deployment. He further said the CISF would take over the security of 10 more installations from this year. Thirty-two CISF units are deployed across the country at present.