Naked fear

Though it is understandable that authorities would take time to ensure that no unnecessary risk is caused by granting too many licences, security is the need of the hour and people feel safer when there is a gun toting guard around," said Singh.

For the meantime, security agencies will have to be content with building up preventive checks.

"The approach has to not only be counter offensive, but also preventive," said Aviv Shweky of Israeli security agency Securegate who have recently tied up with Topsgrup to provide security solutions to corporates and the airport.

'It's not a toy'

However, police officials stress that they need to be prudent in sanctioning licences. "A gun is not a toy; it could be misused in a dangerous manner.

Since last November, we've had around 17 security agencies who have applied for licences and a committee allows arms for services like cash transportation or VVIP security.

However, we certainly can't go around granting permissions for everything like a request to place an armed guard at a housing society.

This would be create more of a risk than solving the problem," said Mumbai police DCP (HQ) Vijaysingh Jadhav, who is in charge of arms and licensing (see box).

Pramoud Rao, chapter president of the Fire and Safety Association of India (FSAI), agrees with Jadhav. "Manpower is one of the largest employment industries in the country at the moment.

However, guards remain uneducated and so many that wield arms have at times never fired a shot in their lives.

There's a false sense of security attached to a gun; guards should be better trained first." All private security agencies are members of FSAI.

17
The number of private security companies u00a0that have applied for arms licences after u00a0the 26/11 attacks

19
The number of security personnel, none u00a0from private agencies, who died saving u00a0lives during 26/11

160
The number of security personnel (RPF and GRP) that guard CST after 26/11. Around 80 per cent of them are armed

Arms and the police

Security agencies in the city are governed by the Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Act of 2005, which controls the functioning of such companies.
u00a0
Security agencies requiring arms must apply to the Mumbai police-licensing department for the same.

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