Pune: Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) officials nowadays have been encountering a peculiar issue at Pune airport. They have been scratching their heads wondering to how to find a solution to the issue where Indian fliers travelling in groups insist on carrying spices in their handbags, saying that they get stolen from their luggage (check-in) bags.
According to a highly placed source from CISF New Delhi, convincing individual passengers or families was relatively easy, but not for fliers coming in a group.
“Several people in a group of 15 to 20 coming to Pune keep arguing at the security checkpoints during their departure. It takes too much time to clear the point and they are not associated with a group leader. Some rules impede carrying sharp objects in handbags,”said the official.
“They keep it with their bags and don’t want to put it inside the check-in luggage. We have to depute some senior officer to convince them,” the CISF official said.
“Sometimes, we face more difficulties when they keep spices in their handbags and refuse to keep it in the check-in luggage. This has been our biggest problem, as according to the rules, we can’t allow fliers to carry any kind of powder spices in their handbags. It takes almost half an hour to recheck all bags,” said the officer.
As per information, this kind of situation was faced by the officers mostly during vacation time or when some event was organised in Pune.
Most of the flights take off during the night and 3-4 flights arrive at a time. There was no possibility of starting more flights during the day slots. For easy movement of the fliers, the CISF has decided to deploy additional staff, resulting in reduced queues during the peak hours.
“After 9 pm and till 1 am, 30 flights arrive and depart from the airport. During this time, the CISF sees long queues of passengers waiting for their security clearance. If the passengers come in a group, it is not easy for us to recheck each bag,” said the officer.
