The Hindu : SPG cover for former PMs to be pruned

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 15, 2002

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National

SPG cover for former PMs to be pruned

By Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI JUNE 14. The Government plans to prune VIP security drastically — reducing the workload on the Special Protection Group — by curtailing the elite security cover to the former Prime Ministers and their families from 10 years to one year.

The proposal to amend the SPG Act came up in the meeting of the Union Cabinet held earlier this week but the Union Home Ministry's proposition to bring in an Ordinance did not find favour, highly-placed Government sources said.

It was proposed to amend the Act by taking recourse to an Ordinance but the Cabinet felt that the Government should bring in the bill in the coming session of Parliament.

The proposal, believed to have been cleared by the Prime Minister's Office, aims at focussing the SPG's energy towards providing a foolproof proximate security cover to the Prime Minister and the members of his immediate family.

Sources said the proposed amendment cut short to one year the 10-year period of SPG cover being given to the former Prime Ministers.

As for their families, the cover would be provided for just three months after the Prime Minister demits office. And during the foreign travel of the former Prime Ministers, only personal security officers would be sent with them instead of SPG personnel.

For the VIPs who face increased threat, the Home Ministry and the security agencies would periodically review the threat perception and decide the level of security to be provided.

This category of "Z plus'' includes, among others, VVIPs such as the Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani, the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, whose threat perception is said to be "very high.''

Sources said the SPG, with its staff strength of nearly 1,500, was often left with little choice but to overstretch its manpower and resources for providing elaborate security cover to the former Prime Ministers and their families.

The SPG Act was amended in the past to give security cover for an extended period of 10 years to the families of the former Prime Ministers.

At present there are four former Prime Ministers — P.V. Narasimha Rao, Chandra Shekhar, Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral — who, along with their families, are being given SPG cover.

Another former Prime Minister, V.P. Singh, had requested the withdrawal of SPG cover and the security arrangements for him were altered accordingly.

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