Thaindian News

New Delhi, Sep 10 (IANS) After dispensing with the commando bodyguards of most of the ‘X’ and ‘Y’ category protectees, the home ministry has now begun in right earnest the sensitive task of pruning security of ‘Z’ class VIPs, an official said Thursday.
“This (review and cutting down security of ‘Z’ category protectees) is a delicate task and is going to be tough because people in this category are very influential and have been under security cover for the last many years,” a home ministry official told IANS.

VIPs from various backgrounds, mostly politicians, have already begun to justify their security cover and prove the genuineness of threats they are facing, the highly placed official said.

But the move has the full backing of Home Minister P. Chidambaram who has led by example by whittling away the huge cover of his own security guards and has now only two personal security officers.

Among those who would see their security cover slashed are former Jammu and Kashmir governors G.C. Saxena and Jagmohan, also an ex minister, and Punjab Kesri editor Ashwani Kumar Minna - who the ministry believes were facing no known threats.

Before leaving for the US, Chidambaram had ordered withdrawal of security personnel of 51 VIPs of ‘Y’ category, which include politicians, bureaucrats and police officers. Besides, the protection to another 21 VIPs in this category has also been scaled down, the official said.

Among those who lost security cover after the latest review are Uttarakhand Governor Margaret Alva, former chief of National Technical Research Organisation R.S. Bedi and Delhi Police’s Special Commissioner Neeraj Kumar.

With this, the home ministry has been able to free over 350 security personnel - from Delhi Police, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) - who would be now tasked to different states for regular law and order maintenance duties.

The ministry had earlier withdrawn the ‘X’ category security given to 30 people, including former chief justice Y.S. Sabharwal and former Congress MP and film actor Govinda.

VIP security is broken up into four levels — ‘Z plus’ for the top of the heap, followed by ‘Z’, ‘Y’ and ‘X’ categories. The categories are determined according to threat perceptions.

The ministry is also mulling to review the number of categories and introduce some more. This will allow the ministry to reduce the number of security personnel given to each VIP.

Over 9,000 personnel, mainly from Delhi Police, supplemented by hundreds of paramilitary personnel drawn from forces like the CRPF, Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the CISF, provide security to the VIPs.

The number of armed bodyguards has often been seen as a status symbol, the major reason why VIPs are so reluctant to have their security cover reduced.

Officials pointed out that the government spends over Rs.250 crore (Rs.2.5 billion) annually for the protection of VIPs.

Appraisals of all the people protected, that the home ministry periodically reviews after receiving inputs from the Intelligence Bureau, have revealed that many of them do not require security as the threat perception simply does not exist.