Amid rising hoax bomb threats, Centre yet to name civil aviation security chief

The government is yet to appoint the new chief of the Bureau of Civil Aviation and Security (BCAS), even as the current director general (DG) is set to retire on October 31.
Officials in the agency, which oversees aviation security said the appointment is important because BCAS is front-and-centre of the response to bomb threats that the country’s airlines have been besieged by over the past month. A senior Indian Police Service officer of director general/police commissioner rank is usually appointed DG (BCAS). The current chief, Zulfiquar Hasan is an IPS officer of the 1988 batch.
Appointing a chief for BCAS before Hasan’s superannuation is also important because the post of joint director general (JDG) of BCAS has also been vacant for over 10 months. The joint director general (JDG) too is a senior IPS officer, who functions as the chief’s deputy and works from BCAS headquarters in New Delhi.
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A mid-level officer in BCAS, who asked not to be named, said: “The last joint director general, Jaideep Prasad was repatriated to his parent cadre, Madhya Pradesh (MP) police as the additional director general (ADG) MP police last year. He is an officer of the 1995 batch Indian Police Service. No officer has joined as the joint director general here. After the DG, the other IPS officers in BCAS are from junior batches.”
In October alone, airports, flight operators, police, and CISF units across different states received over 300 bomb threats. All were hoaxes, but they still disrupted flight operations and resulted in losses to the airlines; and in each case, the airline and security agencies had to follow the prescribed protocol. The BCAS chief has been part of all important meetings with the civil aviation minister, home secretary and chiefs of other agencies handling such threats. Airports such as Delhi, Mumbai and Lucknow have been on high alert for several hours on different days due to the threats.
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A senior IPS officer, who asked not to be named, said that if the government doesn’t appoint a new chief by Wednesday, it is likely that a serving DG from a paramilitary force could be given charge of BCAS. The officer said that BCAS along with the civil aviation ministry is also in the process of making changes to the security protocol when such threats are received. “The order was expected last week. On Saturday the government repatriated DOPT Vivek Joshi to the Haryana cadre. The current Haryana chief secretary is retiring on October 31. Joshi, being the seniormost in the cadre, is likely the next chief secretary. As his order was issued on Saturday, many senior IPS officers too were expecting a similar order related to BCAS. Most probably, the new officer will be from 1991, 1992 or 1993 batch,” this person added.
BCAS is primarily responsible for prescribing security measures by laying Aviation Security Standards in accordance with Annexure 17 to Chicago Convention of ICAO for airport operators, airlines operators, and their security agencies. CISF implements the rules prescribed by BCAS. It is also involved in planning and coordination of aviation security matters.