Body scanners okay for airport, not for Parliament?

Posted by blog master Monday, January 4, 2010

NEW DELHI: Even as security agencies focus on the need for full-body scanners, in the backdrop of the attempt by a Nigerian national to blow up a
Detroit-bound plane, the proposal to acquire the equipment for Parliament security is fast coming unstuck.

In fact, after more than a year of gathering dust in Lok Sabha Speaker’s office, the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on security, has, as sources revealed, now come up with a fresh proposal to acquire not just full-body scanners but also baggage and vehicle scanners keeping in mind the threat to India’s most heavily-guarded building. The proposal to acquire body scanners, which have never been used in India, was made for the first time by the previous JPC in March 2008 but, according to highly placed sources, it got stuck in then Speaker Somnath Chatterjee’s office. The price of these equipment, each of which can cost several crores, was said to be one of the reasons.

Only a handful of countries in the world like the US, UK, France and Israel manufacture such scanners and because it wouldn’t have been possible for the manufacturers to bring the equipment to India for a demo, it was decided that a committee be formed to go abroad for the demonstrations. An inter-departmental technical committee, comprising members of all important security agencies, was formed for the purpose but in the absence of the final go-ahead the committee failed to go abroad even once.

‘‘Right now there is no equipment to detect explosive substances which can be combined with chemicals to cause explosion. Manual frisking remains of paramount importance but there is always a chance of human error in it,’’ said a source.
sourcehttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com