CISF’s annual media meet not held for three years in a row

New Delhi: The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) had held its last annual press conference in March 2019 on the occasion of its 50th Raising Day. The annual press conference, an exercise carried out ritually by every military and paramilitary organization, is an event where the head of the organization showcases the achievements done by the men and women under him/her and is seen as a practice that allows unhindered exchange of thoughts and feedback between the force and the media. Among the steps its men regularly take that find no or negligible mention in the media are preventing people from taking their own life and returning lost items of high value to their owners.
The last such annual press conference was done under the leadership of 1984 Bihar cadre officer, Rajesh Ranjan who was appointed on the post of Director General in April 2018. As a practice, this annual event is done around the CISF’s raising day, which is on 10 March. However, like the previous two years (2020, 2021), this year too, the event was celebrated by the CISF without interacting with the media and sharing the achievements of its almost 1.64 lakh men and women. Other similar organizations like the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), which, too, comes under the Amit Shah-led Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), have, however, continued carrying out this exercise ritually.
The present Director of the CISF, Sheel Vardhan Singh, a 1986 batch Bihar cadre officer, was given the responsibility of the force in November last year. Before him, the force was headed by 1985 batch IPS officer Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, who had joined the post in January 2021 after taking over from his batchmate Kumar Rajesh Chandra.
After the retirement of Rajesh Ranjan in November 2020, the then Sashastra Seema Bal DG Kumar Rajesh Chandra was handling the additional charge of the CISF till Jaiswal was appointed. Sources said that there has been no full-time Public Relation Officer (PRO) in the CISF for more than two years now as none of the DGs who came after Rajesh Ranjan were “too inclined” to have a senior man handling the media. The responsibility of the public relations department is right now being handled by a Personal Staff Officer to the DG.
The present Director General, Sheel Vardhan, who has come from the Intelligence Bureau, that too, to a large extent, maintains a long-arm distance from the media; in essence is simply following on the footstep of his predecessors, Rajesh Chandra and Sobodh Kumar Jaiswal, who is now the Director of the CBI. The CISF, which is widely regarded as among the most people friendly force in the country, provides security to the strategic establishment, including Department of Space, the Department of Atomic Energy, Airports, Delhi Metro, ports, historical monuments and strategic assets such as petroleum and natural gas, electricity, coal, steel and mining. It has 74 other formations, including 12 reserve battalions and 08 training institutes. The CISF also provides protection to private sector units and important government buildings in Delhi apart from providing security to the protected persons classified as Z Plus, Z, X, Y. It is the only force with a customized and dedicated fire wing.