Centre taking steps to curb of passenger baggage at airports: Pusapati

New Delhi: Seeking to prevent theft of passenger baggage at airports, the civil aviation ministry has adopted a variety of measures, including sharing of list of suspects with all agencies. Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju Pusapati told Lok Sabha that while 126 cases were reported from 19 airports in 2011, the numbers came down to 86 in 2012. [caption id=“attachment_1659163” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju Pusapati. Image courtesy PIB[/caption] In 2013, 53 such cases were reported and the figure was 34 till May this year. He said as part of preventive measures, ground handling staff is frisked when they leave the airport. Also, airline security staff have been deployed at baggage handling areas. The photo identity cards of the ground handling staff are collected once their shift is over. This ensures that they do not enter the baggage area after completion of their shift. He said as of now, there is no proposal under consideration to install any tracking system to provide travelers real time information about the location of their baggage. The minister said CISF, which guards major airports, updates details of lost baggage on its website on a daily basis. PTI