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Secretariat security to go automated

Scanning devices, vehicle surveillance system to be installed

M Rahman
In a bid to beef up the existing security system at the secretariat, the government is set to install automated scanning devices at all of its six gates, phasing out the existing manual system which often fails to check around 18,000 employees and visitors every day.
Under the proposed system —
expected to be in effect in six months -- the visitors' identity, accreditation and vehicle pass will be scanned. Once cleared, bars installed at the gates will automatically be lifted allowing the visitors enter.
With the help of Radio Frequency Identifier (RFID) device, the new automated system will be able to detect and read entry and exit passes from a distance of 20 meters, said a
home ministry source.
He also said the device will also scan files, documents and other materials passing through the gates to detect whether these contain any explosives or harmful particles.
Both the two existing scanners at the secretariat gates went out of order around six years ago, officials said, leaving security at the crucial complex vulnerable.
As particulars of all secretariat employees and vehicles will be tracked and kept at the central server of the system, the relevant authority will be able to know when a staff enters and leaves office and thus ensure 'punctuality and transparency'.
Home ministry sources said four IT firms including two foreign ones got the task of supply, installation, testing and commissioning of the devices which Home Minister Shahara Khatun approved last month. Letters with notification of awarding the jobs were sent to the firms.
Upon signing of the contract, the firms will have to complete the task within six months, a source pointed out.
Local firms -- Deltech Limited and Tracer Electrocom — were awarded the tasks of installing the vehicle surveillance system, road blocker for special
gates, and RFID Access control system at the entry/exit gates for vehicles and visitors at a cost of Tk 4 crore.
Two foreign firms --Smiths Detection (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd and Autoclear, Middle East Regional Headquarters --got the task of installing Portable Explosive Vapour Detector and scanning equipments involving aroundTk2 crore.
Security-in-Charge of the secretariat Maruf Hossain Sardar, also Dhaka Metropolitan Police's additional deputy commissioner, said about 18,000 people including around 14,000 employees enter the secretariat every working day.
“Currently, only 126 personnel — 58 of the DMR 62 of the Armed Police Battalion and 6 of the Rab — are deployed at the gates to ensure security," he said.
Maruf said almost every day some unscrupulous
employees of the secretariat try to take visitors in the area by using fake passes.
He added such dishonest employees mostly use the stamps and signatures of the officers who were recently transferred from the secretariat to elsewhere.
'Tn the first half of January, we arrested four persons bearing fake passes,” the officer added.
Another security officer, preferring anonymity, said, ‘Tn the morning when the designated buses carry hundreds of staff to the secretariat, the inadequate number of security personnel apparently has nothing to do but allowing them in without any scanning.”
Often private cars with passes carry people on board who have no accreditation cards or temporary passes. “As there is no scanner to detect cards, poorly-staffed security cannot check all of them on board,” he mentioned.