VIRUDHUNAGAR: Virudhunagar Congress MP Manickam Tagore, in a petition to Union Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah on Thursday, demanded the deployment of an adequate number of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel in Madurai airport to facilitate its 24 hours operation.
The MP said, "Madurai Airport, one of the busiest airports in Tamil Nadu, has been functioning without an adequate number of CISF security personnel. For starting the 24 hours operation at the airport, a resurvey was carried out to assess the additional manpower requirement. But to date, the augmented strength could not be finalised by the joint resurvey committee. As per the request of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), additional 76 personnel were deployed on Internal Security (IS) duty pattern to operationalise the third shift to facilitate the 24-hour operation, however, the minister refused a further extension and directed CISF to withdraw the same on the grounds of non-clearance of outstanding dues by the AAI.”
Tagore further said the AAI may be requested to take up the matter with the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security to conduct a fresh survey on the manpower requirement for the 24-hour operation in Madurai airport. He also urged the AAI to clear the outstanding dues to CISF.