The RK Puram, East of Kailash and Vasant Vihar branches of the Delhi Public School (DPS) have written to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), seeking advice on the possibility of a security cover. With the Rajya Sabha passing the CISF amendment Bill on Thursday, the school’s request may soon be heard.

The amendment allows deployment of the force for the security of private and joint venture enterprises, depending upon the threat perception.

Dr Shyama Chona, principal of DPS-RK Puram, said: “We had sent a letter to the CISF, asking them whether they provide security to private concerns and, if yes, how to go about it. Now that the (amendment) Bill has been passed, we may expect CISF cover for us.”

The decision to seek security was reportedly taken keeping in view the threat perception from terrorist organisations on educational institutions. DPS has currently hired the services of private security guards.

Apart from DPS and other private schools, similar requests have come to the CISF from hotels, private industries, hospitals and information technology firms too. These include Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, HDFC Bank, Oberoi (five locations) and Trident (eight locations) hotels, DLF Services Pvt Ltd (Gurgaon), IBM Bangalore, Larsen and Toubro (Mumbai), The Leela Palace Hotels and Resorts (Mumbai), Premium Explosives (Secundrabad), and Shri Maheshwari Hydro-Power Limited (Madhya Pradesh), among others.

While it has not been assessed yet as to how much security cover can be provided to these private bodies, CISF sources said they were in the process of analysing various aspects. Additional Director General (CISF) Manjari Jaruhar said: “We are a need-based security force. We first do risk management and analyse the need for security cover and then make our best professional efforts to secure a particular organisation.” The strength of the force is 1,12,534 at present, but it will be expanded to 1.45 lakh to meet the additional requirements, it is learnt.

A CISF cover was till now available to public sector units, heritage complexes such as the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort and important installations like airports and atomic power projects. The CISF also provides security and fire-related consultancy services to IIT-Kharagpur, National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Sciences, ICICI Bank and the Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology. This was enabled after an amendment was made to the CISF Act in 1999. The force charges Rs 1.25 lakh a month from big industries, Rs 75,000 from the middle-level industries and Rs 50,000 from the smaller ones for its service.