Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
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The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) is likely to release the technical norms for operating full-body scanners to screen passengers at airports next month, according to a senior government official. “A committee comprising representatives of the Intelligence Bureau, the National Investigating Agency and the Cabinet Secretariat will be finalising technical specifications for full-body scanners using millimetre wave technology, following which these will be published next month,” a senior official of the Ministry of Home Affairs said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The BCAS had decided to recommend body scanners using active and passive millimetre wave technologies instead of back-scatter and full transmission X-ray technologies after consulting the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), which had expressed concerns about frequent exposure of passengers to X-ray radiation, the official said. The two types of millimetre wave scanners produce a silhouette of the passenger being screened instead of a naked image, thereby safeguarding the privacy of the individual. The official added that these scanners would not be mandatory for airports to deploy but could be used in addition to equipment such as door metal frame detectors, explosive trace detectors, explosive vapour detectors as well as pat down searches.
