State machineries : How concerned are they for our security?

Health ministry

In the US, H1N1 Flu has taken alarming percentage. US is among the few countries for which travel advisory is given to passengers travelling abroad. India has got many deaths from H1N1 flu. THE MAJORITY OF THESE CASES HAVE COME UP BECAUSE OF PEOPLE WHO WERE AFFECTED WITH H1N1 FLU COMING FROM US.

The Indian health ministry says it does effective screening of passengers coming from abroad. To identify whether a person is suffering from H1N1 Flu, his blood sample needs to be taken and checked for which results are available after few days. It is not possible to do so for the large no of passengers coming from abroad. The only thing which the health ministry personnel do at the airport is wear masks and accept a passenger’s self declaration to identify a person who had/may have H1N1 flu. It is very likely the person himself will be unaware of these symptoms and even if he does know, he will hide it from the officials (This actually led to affected patients escaping from health officials and led to spreading of this disease in such major proportion in India).

If the health officials follow these steps, we have a more realistic chance of H1N1 not becoming a epidemic In India-

1. Conduct blood tests of all foreigners coming from abroad(No such test is taken when these foreigners travel from their native countries that is an affected person can easily pass from his/her country.

2. Do the same procedures for all Indians who have spent say greater than three month’s stay in any of the affected countries These people have a greater chance of being affected.

3. Have Infra red sensors installed which detect any abnormality in body temperature.If a passenger shows this symptoms get his blood test done despite what is written on his self – declaration form.

4. Create greater awareness at the airport to the passengers travelling to affected countries by means of posters, travel advisories being displayed prominently in Airport.

5. Last but not the least the health officials should understand the bigger picture in case the disease breaks as an epidemic and not treat this as mere routine.

CISF

At the airport CISF works very diligently. But there focus is on dangerous items being carried on board the aircraft. Little do they realize that any accident in the Airport premises will cause greater damage of life and material as compared to that in the aircraft. CISF does not do any checking of baggage when a person enters the airport. CISF allows any passenger to enter the airport only around 2 hours of departure of domestic flight or little earlier only if the airlines baggage counter inside the airport is open.

They presume that by allowing people to go inside the airport in this time frame will ensure that the passengers will pass their baggage at the X-ray machines immediately and the risk to the airport can be minimized.

They do not realize that any unscrupulous person can choose to go inside and not pass his baggage in the X-ray machine and leave the building leaving his bag behind. This eventuality can happen whether you leave a person 2 or 5 hours inside the airport. However due to this outlook of CISF many a times bonafide passengers who are in transit have to suffer as they are kept waiting for airline counters inside airport to open.

For solving any problem, its root needs to be identified. By just following superficial solutions we might just be putting it under the carpet for some time. The government machinery needs to back up their efforts with foresight and planned actions.

Indira Gandhi International Airport: State of Art or Misery

On my return from US, I landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport at New Delhi developed by GMR.I was pleasantly surprised to see clean lobbies with user friendly services like children’s play area, laptop stations, information centers etc. Indeed GMR group did spend some time and money in designing the airport.
However I felt that the Airport lacked the vision for future in certain areas and also lacked in some of its maintenance and coordination activities.

1. The airport did not have separate toilet earmarked and designed for the handicapped as is the basic norm in all worldwide airports.

2. The laptop stations plug points were non functional and worse the airport authorities were not even aware of it.

3. The conveyor belts did not display the luggage from which flight was moving on them.

4. The drinking water outlets were very few and there were hardly any overhead signboards indicating their location in the airport.

5. As a transit passenger when I moved to domestic terminal in night 12 o clock, I was denied entry into the airport by CISF. They had instructions from their boss(not the Airport manager) for not allowing passengers of a particular flight inside till the airline counter for check in inside the airport was not open .THE CISF could not risk passengers to hang in the airport without their baggage checked in.. On inquiring with the Airport manager I found that he has instructed all Airlines to man their counters for 24 hours. But since the airlines were not following laid down rules he will try to reinforce those orders. Owing to this 100 passengers , for almost 1.30 hours kept standing(little provision to sit} outside the Airport in the cold when we had valid tickets for travel. This is how a customer gets treated when he is even charged a USER DEVELOPMENT FEE!

6. The phone booths can be used with the help of a booth operator. There is no provision of inserting coins and calling up on your own independently of the operator. This is the state at all places where phone booths are there in airport.

7. The airport had no provision for metro/shuttles to reach till the Airport door.(This obviously requires collaboration from various departments) Imagine the plight of sportsmen and others who would land at the airport for common wealth games in 2010 and have to carry their kits to the buses parked in a distant parking spot. The best airports in the world have public transport like shuttles/metro dropping and picking customers from the airport door.

Since the Airport has a feedback mechanism(I used it too)I am hoping things will improve there..atleast those in their control.