City cops yet to pick up the call from BPO staff

MUMBAI: While the Delhi and Bangalore police have chalked out a security action plan for BPO employees in their respective jurisdiction, Mumbai Police are still searching for one.

The security of BPO employees who have to travel late and the recent incidents of rape and murder has forced the police in these two cities to develop a comprehensive action plan. Mumbai which has a sizeable presence of BPO companies in the suburbs and Navi Mumbai is yet to take concrete steps.

Industry bodies like CII and Call Center Association of India (CCAI) have been working with the Delhi and Gurgaon police to draw up an action plan for employee security.

At a meeting held on December 30, Muktesh Chander, ACP crime, Delhi police, highlighted the importance of police verification of drivers, linking it to the menace of fake driving licences and registration papers. The Bangalore police is also planning to make this verification mandatory.

Hanif Qureshi, SSP Gurgaon, says, ”While there is a paucity of PCR vans and motorcycle riders with the Gurgaon police, the total police presence around the BPOs will be increased.”

The Delhi and Bangalore police have decided to install Global Positioning System (GPS) in the cars ferrying employees. Screening of all third party service providers will be shared with the local police in a digitised form, routes will be carefully selected and displaying important telephone numbers in all the leased vehicles.

Nasscom and BPOs in Mumbai met AN Roy, Mumbai police commissioner, to discuss these issues on December 22, but while other cities have come with their plans Mumbai still does not have anything chalked out.

Mr Roy said, “The city police have no direct role to play in the security of the employees but we will co-operate with the BPOs in every possible way. The problem is that all the support services are outsourced by the organisations so there is a need to standardise the contract giving practises.”

Nandkumar Saravade, Director-cyber security-Nasscom says, “We are working on making a central database of support services employees which will be have demographic details of all third party employees.” Mr Saravade said database regarding the background of the hired drivers will be made available in local police stations to allow easy access by frims to such data.

But Mr Roy sharply reacted to it and said, “BPOs don’t ask for any background information since they rely on the third party vendor and they too don’t ask for any information about the drivers before recruiting them.”