Untraceable entry passes, breach of airport security

Airport entry passes issued to 30 employees have been missing since the past two months, the legislative council was informed on Monday. With Mumbai already being threatened by terrorist groups and the world cup finals to be held in the city, the loss of the passes poses a tricky question to the home ministry.

The news of the loss of passes, was revealed by MLC Kiran Pawaskar, raising a point of propriety in the legislative council.

Pawaskar said, "The passes are issued by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security to employees of various companies at the airport. In this particular case, passes belonging to two specific companies have gone missing. First is Livewell, that provides flight handling and air- conditioning cleaning services. The second one is Celebinas, that provides loading, off- loading and cleaning services to Kingfisher. 12 of the employees have complained to the police regarding the loss, however, they got a very lukewarm response from the police who were not even ready to take complaints," Pawaskar alleged.

The Bureau of Civil Aviation Services issues the passes to the employees. In case they are lost, the onus is on the company to inform the police and the BCAS. Every employee collects the pass from a supervisor or manager while going inside the airport and submits it after his duty hours, for safekeeping. " In the current case, the supervisors entrusted with the custody of the passes themselves are suspected of having misplaced the passes," Pawaskar alleged.

"I have brought it to the notice of the local DCP Mr. Satyanarayan and ACP too. It is highly important from the security point of view to find out where exactly these passes are right now," he added.

Taking serious note of the point raised by the MLC, the Chairman of the legislative council asked him to give copies of his memorandum to him as well as to the home minister. He also said that the matter pertains to state and national security and that he would himself talk to the home minister.